Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

District Heating: Finance

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will publish additional detail on his Department's fund for support people on heat networks.

Graham Stuart: On 8 September, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Prime Minister made announcements on a price freeze for customers. The new Energy Price Guarantee will apply to households in Great Britain, with the same level of support made available to households in Northern Ireland. Those households who do not pay direct for mains gas and electricity – such as those living in park homes or on heat networks – will be no worse off and receive support through a new fund. The Government will set out more detailed proposals on the scheme as quickly as possible.

Department of Health and Social Care

Protective Clothing: Storage

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on how many occasions since 1 January 2022 has (a) he or (b) his predecessor received requests from the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the cost of the storage of personal protective equipment.

Robert Jenrick: The Department remains in regular contact with HM Treasury regarding the cost of storing personal protective equipment.

Addenbrookes Hospital: Cancer

Bim Afolami: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to support the construction of new (a) children’s and (b) specialist cancer hospitals at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge.

Robert Jenrick: Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust were allocated Wave 4 Sustainability and Transformation Partnership funding of £100 million in 2018 for Cambridge Children’s Hospital. The Department and NHS England are working with the Trust on the plans for the scheme.A cancer research hospital at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. The New Hospital Programme is working with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on the development of the plans for the specialist cancer hospital and progressing enabling works ahead of the main scheme development. The Trust has received £2.6 million for the scheme and it is on schedule to commence construction before 2024.

Hospitals: Hertfordshire

Bim Afolami: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his timescale is for delivery of a new hospital in West Hertfordshire.

Robert Jenrick: A new hospital for West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver 40 new hospitals by 2030. The programme to deliver the new hospitals involves schemes being grouped into ‘cohorts’. This is based on an assessment of existing readiness to progress and the extent to which new hospitals can benefit from advantages of delivery through a national programme.The new hospital for West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is in the third cohort of ‘Pathfinder’ schemes. The Pathfinder cohort is the first group of larger and more complex schemes within the programme being progressed. The timing of the larger and more complex cohorts is still to be finalised, with delivery by 2030.

Hyperactivity: Medical Treatments

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that patients who require treatment for Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and similar conditions will not been impacted by potential disruptions to the supply chains for the prescription medications they require.

Robert Jenrick: The Department has well established procedures to deal with supply issues with prescription medicines and works with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, NHS England and industry to prevent shortages and ensure that any risks to patients are minimised should they arise.We are aware of supply issues with some medicines used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. However, alternative products remain available and communications have been issued to the National Health Service to provide advice.

Allergies: Medical Equipment

Johnny Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of supply of EpiPen/epinephrine; and what steps his Department takes to help ensure sufficient supply of that medication.

Robert Jenrick: Epipen 300 microgram pens and Epipen 150 microgram Epipens continue to be available and alternative brands of adrenaline auto-injectors also remain available.

Coronavirus: Immunosuppression

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help (a) improve the effectiveness of and (b) increase access to Covid-19 treatments for people with compromised immune systems.

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what action he is taking to increase rapid patient access to anti-viral treatments for covid-19.

Robert Jenrick: Currently, immunocompromised patients, who form part of the high-risk cohort are a priority group eligible for receiving novel effective COVID-19 treatments within the community following a positive test. These treatments include both antiviral drugs and neutralising monoclonal antibodies which are available via COVID Medicines Delivery Units. The Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel has been established to review the patient cohorts which could be eligible for COVID-19 therapies. On 30 May 2022 the Department published an Independent Advisory Group report which revised the high-risk cohort and included additional groups of patients. As a result of these changes and improved identification by the National Health Service, the cohort of eligible patients has grown to an estimated 1.8 million patients in the United Kingdom. Access to treatments could be extended further if evidence from clinical trials supports doing so. The PANORAMIC study which aims to improve understanding of the effectiveness antivirals in preventing hospitalisation and/or death in a largely vaccinated population. It will provide data for the NHS to determine which patient groups could benefit most from antiviral treatments.

Southend Hospital NHS Trust: Capital Investment

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much new capital funding has been made available for capital works at Southend Hospital as of 6 September 2022; what his planned timetable is for making potential further new capital funding available for those works; and if he will make a statement.

Robert Jenrick: Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation received £10.2 million in 2020/21 and £5.3 million in 2021/22 for Southend Hospital through the programme to upgrade accident and emergency departments. The Trust was also awarded £118 million in 2017 for a scheme to transform acute and out-of-hospital services locally, including at Southend Hospital, following public consultation. The Trust is currently developing its full business case and a request for early funding is currently under review. Full funding will be made available once the business case has been approved.

Coronavirus: Medical Treatments

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help evaluate future effectiveness of prophylactic covid-19 treatments.

Robert Jenrick: RAPID C-19 has enabled active multi-agency oversight of national and international trial evidence for COVID-19 therapies for potential treatment and prophylactic indications. To date, evidence has strongly supported treatment use, although emerging evidence on prophylactic use is continuing to be reviewed.We are monitoring a range of treatment products through the Protect-V study, including sotrovimab and niclosamide, as administered over a six-month period in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients, to assess their effectiveness and suitability. Where material evidence is identified, the formation and implementation of United Kingdom-wide clinical access policies will follow as previously for other treatments.

Coronavirus: Medical Treatments

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of access to antiviral treatments for people who are acutely vulnerable to covid-19.

Robert Jenrick: For patients whose immune system means they are at the highest risk from COVID-19 and who test positive for the virus, treatments can be accessed directly through COVID Medicine Delivery Units (CMDUs). Those patients at high risk of COVID-19 who are ineligible to access treatments via CMDUs can access antivirals via the PANORAMIC national study.The Department and NHS England are monitoring the uptake of antiviral treatment against those digitally identified as eligible. In England, 95% of eligible non-hospitalised patients who have received an antiviral treatment to date were treated within five days from the date of symptom onset.

Evusheld

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when his Department plans to publish national guidelines for the prescription of Evusheld.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi-agency RAPID C-19 and a United Kingdom national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and it should be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation.

Darent Valley Hospital

Adam Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the ONS publication entitled How the population changed in Dartford: Census 2021, published on 28 June 2022, if he will review the capacity of Darent Valley Hospital in the context of an above national average population increase in the local area in the period 2011 to 2021.

Robert Jenrick: The Health and Care Act 2022 established 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England. ICBs empower local health and care leaders to integrate planning and provision of services and will produce five-year joint forward plans with partner National Health Service trusts and foundation trusts to respond to local health needs. This may include consideration of the needs of a changing population.There are no current plans to review the capacity of Darent Valley Hospital. Kent and Medway ICB are responsible for planning and commissioning healthcare services, including inpatient acute and emergency and urgent care services.

Gastrointestinal System: Diseases

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the number of patients with (a) chronic and (b) benign bowel conditions waiting for long periods for (i) surgery and (ii) treatment.

Robert Jenrick: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’, published in February 2022, stated the ambition to reduce long waiting times for planned National Health Service treatments, including for patients with chronic and benign bowel conditions. In July 2022, two-year waits for elective treatments were virtually eliminated and the Department is working with NHS England on further ambitions in the plan.From April 2023, providers will be asked to establish perioperative care co-ordination teams to create capacity for those who require more complex care in a higher acuity setting. The NHS is also providing information and support to patients while they await treatment through the My Planned Care platform, including those with chronic or benign bowel conditions.

NHS: Energy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps her Department has taken to help improve the energy efficiency of (a) NHS buildings and (b) other healthcare facilities.

Robert Jenrick: In October 2020, NHS England set out its net zero carbon ambitions in ‘Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service’, including improving energy efficiency and reducing energy consumption. In October 2021, NHS England set out how it plans to tackle emissions from the National Health Service estate, including through its energy usage.In 2019, NHS England deployed £5 million of light-emitting diode lighting across its estate through the NHS Energy Efficiency Fund to reduce energy demand and costs. Since its launch, the NHS is deploying a further £611 million of funding through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to support low carbon heating and energy efficiency projects in England. This includes £329 million from the most recent phase of the scheme, which will be delivered from 2022 to 2025. NHS England aims to publish further technical guidance to supports efforts for achieving energy efficient healthcare buildings across its estates.

Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the salary bands are for the (a) Interim Chief Executive, (b) Chief Financial Officer, (c) Chief Operating Officer, (d) Managing Director of Basildon Hospital, (e) Managing Director of Broomfield Hospital, (f) Managing Director of Southend Hospital and (g) other members of the senior leadership of the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust for 2022-23.

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the salary band is for the Chairman of the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board for 2022-23.

Mr Mark Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the salary band is of the Chief Executive of the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board for 2022-23.

Robert Jenrick: Salaries of directors are published in annual reports in paybands. NHS England provides pay guidance for very senior managers at foundation trusts, which is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/guidance-on-pay-for-very-senior-managers/Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust is classified as a ‘supra large acute’ provider and foundation trusts hold statutory power over remuneration. The salary band for the Chair of Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board is £60,000 to £65,000 for a 2.5 to three day working week. The salary band for the Chief Executive of Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board is £190,000 to £212,500. Pay in excess of these levels would require Ministerial approval.It is imperative that all parts of the National Health Service exercise good judgement and concern for taxpayer value in determining executive pay.

Evusheld

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish the findings to date from the Department's review of the efficacy of Evusheld.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi-agency RAPID C-19 and a United Kingdom national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The UK Chief Medical Officers are content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and it should be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation.The Department wrote to patient groups on 5 September 2022 on this decision and the evidence considered. The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.

Diagnosis

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 9 December 2021 to Question 85238 on Diagnosis, when he plans to publish NHS England’s evaluation report on Rapid Diagnostic Centres.

Robert Jenrick: The National Health Service cancer programme commissioned an external evaluation of the faster diagnosis programme, including rapid diagnostic centres, for the period until March 2024. The final report will be considered for publication in 2024.

Evusheld

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish (a) the full clinical and scientific advice that his Department received on Evusheld and (b) his Department's reasoning for its decision not to procure the drug for treatment of long covid-19.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi-agency initiative, RAPID C-19 and a national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and agree that this should now be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation.The Department wrote to patient groups on 5 September 2022 with information on this decision and evidence considered. The letter summarised the evidence considered by RAPID C-19 which contributed to the decision not to procure and deploy Evusheld and detailed the next steps the Government will take. The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.

Evusheld

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has (a) met and (b) plans to meet any campaign groups to discuss the provision of Evusheld.

Robert Jenrick: Senior Departmental officials plan to meet with stakeholder groups on the provision of Evusheld in due course. The Government has held regular discussions with stakeholders and support organisations and will continue this engagement.

Department of Health and Social Care: EU Law

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many officials in their Department are working on Retained EU Law legislation.

Robert Jenrick: Currently there are two full-time officials working solely on the proposed Retained EU Law (Reform and Revocation) Bill. They are supported by policy advice from a further 32 officials in the Department.

Doctors: Workplace Pensions

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions his Department has had with the British Medical Association on the (a) level of taxation of and (b) annual allowance for doctors' pensions; and whether his Department plans to amend these.

Robert Jenrick: Taxation is a matter for HM Treasury. An individual may choose to claim their pension for a number of reasons and it is not possible to isolate the impact of any single factor, such as the annual allowance on retention. The Department monitors the retirement patterns and hours worked by senior doctors and keeps the NHS Pension Scheme rules under review to ensure it continues to help the National Health Service attract and retain the staff needed to deliver high quality care for patients.

Evusheld

Mick Whitley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reasons his Department has not made Evusheld available to immunocompromised people; and if he will make a statement.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi-agency RAPID C-19 and a United Kingdom national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and it should be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation.The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.

Doctors: Workplace Pensions

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of inflation on the pension (a) scheme and (b) annual allowance for NHS doctors.

Robert Jenrick: The NHS Pension Scheme protects the value of pensions in payment by an increase through the Consumer Price Index (CPI) each April using the CPI figure from the previous September. The Scheme also re-values accrued career-average pension benefits by CPI plus 1.5% annually for active members. A higher rate of revaluation will increase the size of pensions and may therefore increase annual allowance pension tax liability in a situation where inflation is increasing.

NHS: Pay

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the average pay of NHS staff working in (a) Newham and (b) Tower Hamlets.

Robert Jenrick: The information requested is not held centrally. For over one million National Health Service non-medical staff, including nurses, paramedics, and midwives, the average basic pay has increased from approximately £31,500 to £32,900 from 2021/22 to 2022/23.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Finance

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional funding her Department has made available to Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to help tackle health inequalities.

Robert Jenrick: Allocations to integrated care boards (ICBs) made through NHS England, including NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, are adjusted for health inequalities and unmet need in the weighted capitation formula, which was recently reviewed by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. ICB allocations were published in April 2022 and are available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/allocation-of-resources-2022-23/

NHS Digital: Finance

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total budget is for NHS Digital in (a) the 2022-23 financial year and (b) in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: The following table shows NHS Digital’s combined revenue and capital budget in each financial since 2017/18.2022/232021/222020/212019/202018/192017/18£784.1 million£932.7 million£690.6 million£518.7 million£515.7 million£456.9 million

Department of Health and Social Care: India

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department were based permanently in (a) Gujarat, (b) Delhi and (c) other states in India in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Robert Jenrick: The Department has not employed staff based in India in the last five years.

Accident and Emergency Departments: Standards

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average waiting time was for a person arriving at an emergency department in the (a) UK, (b) London Borough of Havering and (c) Queen’s Hospital in Romford in the latest period for which data is available; and what steps his Department is taking to help reduce those waiting times.

Robert Jenrick: This information is not held in the format requested. NHS Digital collects data on median waiting times by National Health Service trust in England. Waiting time data is not collected by London borough.In July 2022, the average median waiting time to treatment in accident and emergency (A&E) was 79 minutes in England and 174 minutes in Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. The total average median waiting time in A&E was 190 minutes in England and 395 minutes in Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.NHS bed capacity will be increased by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds to reduce waiting times for admission from A&E. The provision of same day emergency care and acute frailty services will be increased and NHS 111 will have an enhanced role as the first point of triage for urgent care services, supported by an additional £50 million in 2022/23 to increase call taking capacity. The National Discharge Taskforce aims to reduce delayed discharge across acute, mental health and community care settings, working with social care partners to implement best practice.

Junior Doctors: Pay

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when the 2022-23 salary increase for trainee doctors at levels ST6 and above will commence.

Robert Jenrick: Salaries for all trainee doctors, including those at ST6 level and above, were increased from 1 April 2022.The pay arrangements applicable from 1 April 2022 for doctors and dentists in training, are detailed in the relevant NHS Employers’ Pay and Conditions Circular at the following link:https://www.nhsemployers.org/sites/default/files/2022-03/Pay%20and%20Conditions%20Circular%20%28MD%29%201-2022.pdf

Queen's Hospital Romford: Standards

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will commission an independent review of waiting times at Queen’s Hospital in Romford.

Robert Jenrick: We have no plans to do so. However, the Department continues to work with NHS England to monitor the performance of Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust.The Queen’s Hospital is using the independent sector to reduce the number of patients with the longest waiting times, evening and weekend super-clinics, state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment and streamlined ways of working. In July 2022, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust met the target to eliminate those patients waiting more than 104 weeks, with the exception of complex cases and where patients had expressed a choice.

Coronavirus: Medical Treatments

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what process is undertaken by t5he (a) NHS and (b) his Department to evaluate potential future prophylactic covid-19 treatments.

Robert Jenrick: The Government is undertaking a clinical trial called ‘PROTECT-V’, which is open to some immunocompromised patients. PROTECT-V tests treatments intended to reduce the risk of confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 infections in vulnerable renal and immunosuppressed patients and reduce the associated risk of hospitalisation and death.The multi-agency RAPID C-19 and a national expert policy working group will continue to provide independent clinical advice on any potential future prophylactic COVID-19 treatments. These groups consider a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies. RAPID C-19 monitors clinical trials for emerging evidence and where treatments are proven to be clinically effective, ensures that National Health Service patients can safely receive early access.

Barts Health NHS Trust: Patient Choice Schemes

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to her Department's guidance, The NHS Choice Framework: what choices are available to me in the NHS?, updated 14 January 2020, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the implementation of her Department's policy on equality of access to a hospital of choice by Barts Health NHS Trust.

Robert Jenrick: ‘The NHS Choice Framework: what choices are available to me in the NHS?’ is currently being updated to reflect changes arising from the Health and Care Act 2022. The updated guidance will be published later this year. The existing Framework remains applicable and is available to commissioners, providers and patients.All services offered by Barts Health NHS Trust are subject to the Framework and there are local policies for each hospital within the Trust to implement it. The Trust will investigate any complaint received, either directly from a patient or via an intermediary.

Dentistry: Training

James Wild: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dentistry training places have been funded by Health Education England in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: The Office for Students’ target for the number of dental school places taken up each year is 809, with scope for marginal variation each year averaged over five years.The Government temporarily lifted the cap on dental school places in 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on A-Levels. Consequently, more places were funded above the 809 annual target in those years. In 2020/21, there were 895 places and 970 in 2021/22. From 2022/23, the target reverts to 809.

NHS Trusts: Taxation

Mr Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 19 July 2022 to Question 36694 on NHS Trusts: Apprentices, if he will make it his policy to centrally collect data to assess (a) how much each NHS Trust pays in apprenticeship levy and (b) how much and what proportion of that levy revenue is subsequently spent; and for what reason there is any potential unspent revenue from that levy.

Robert Jenrick: The apprenticeship levy is paid by individual National Health Service employers which collect and monitor data on expenditure through the levy. There are no current plans to collect this data centrally, given the significant administrative burden this would create for trusts. It is the responsibility of individual employers to ensure the available levy is effectively utilised and where there is underspending, to use the transfer function available.

Members: Correspondence

John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the letters of 8July and 8 August 2022 from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare on behalf of his constituent Allyn Condonregarding the Care Quality Commission.

Robert Jenrick: We replied to the hon. Member on 6 September 2022.

Lung Diseases: Health Services

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing funding and (b) implementing a strategy for the treatment of (i) pulmonary fibrosis and (ii) interstitial lung disease.

Will Quince: We have no plans to make a specific assessment. NHS England is responsible for the commissioning of services for interstitial lung disease (ILD) and funds the cost of anti-fibrotic treatments to treat this disease. Access to these treatments has recently been expanded to patients with non-idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis following the publication of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s technology appraisal ‘Nintedanib for treating progressive fibrosing interstitial lung diseases’ in November 2021.NHS England’s service specification outlines the requirements of a quality service and requires the completion of metrics through the ILD Specialised Services Quality Dashboard. The Specialised Respiratory Clinical Reference Group contains clinical members who advise NHS England on ILD services and includes a member of a pulmonary fibrosis charity as a patient and public voice member. It is expected that commissioning responsibility for these services will be delegated by to integrated commissioning boards with effect from April 2023, while NHS England will retain responsibility for setting national standards.

General Practitioners and Hospitals: Attendance

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an estimate of the number of missed GP and hospital appointments in (a) England, (b) Romford and (c) the London Borough of Havering since 2016.

Robert Jenrick: The information requested on missed appointments in general practice is not held in the format requested. From July 2020 to July 2022, the estimated number of missed general practice appointments in England, excluding COVID-19 vaccinations, was 26.91 million and 1.15 million in North East London Integrated Care Board.Data for missed hospital appointments is not collected at constituency level. The following table shows the number of ‘did not attends’ England and the London Borough of Havering in each year from 2015/16 to 2020/21, the most recent data available. YearEnglandHavering2015/167,519,82938,2102016/177,938,00940,1252017/187,984,18339,8502018/197,919,66037,9102019/207,695,04037,0802020/215,640,74922,750 Source: NHS Digital

Health Services

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is taking steps to meet uptake targets for the five highest health gain categories; and who is accountable for that effort.

Robert Jenrick: The National Health Service continues to support the most clinically and cost-effective medicines, including the five highest health gain (5HHG) categories. NHS Digital’s innovation scorecard estimates show that use of the 5HHG categories, with the exception of varenicline, was within the expected usage of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s recommended medicines. The scorecard is scheduled to be updated on 27 October 2022.The Voluntary Scheme for Branded Medicines Pricing and Access is an agreement between the Department, on behalf of the Government, NHS England, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and suppliers or producers of branded medicines on the Scheme. All parties committed to the objective of reaching the upper quartile of uptake for the 5HHG categories in relation to comparator countries during the first half of the Scheme.

Hospitals: Standards

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the information her Department holds on instances of GPs attempting to book procedures but are refused as a result of slots not being available at hospitals at hospital trusts in England in the last 12 months.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps NHS England is taking to remain in contact with patients who have attempted to book procedures via their GP but have been refused as a result of slots not being available at hospitals.

Will Quince: The information requested is not held centrally. Referrals are made from general practitioners (GPs) using the electronic referral system (eRS). If there is no availability on the eRS for a particular provider, the referrer uses the ‘defer to provider’ function to send the referral to the provider of choice, with an appointment made directly with the patient. There are no restrictions on a GP referring the patient to a particular provider. Following a referral to a hospital, the patient will be contacted when an appointment becomes available and will be managed in order of clinical priority.Hospitals are required to validate patients on waiting lists at intervals to determine whether it remains appropriate for that patient. NHS England has also developed the ‘My Planned Care’ national patient platform, which is communicated to patients. This contains waiting time information updated weekly at provider and specialty level. In addition, clinical guidelines are developed to enable patients to manage their condition and optimise their health while waiting for treatment. Information is also provided on voluntary sector organisations which can support patients.

Coronavirus: Medical Treatments

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average response time was for NHS Covid-19 medicines delivery units to provide antiviral treatments to patients at home in the latest period for which data is available.

Robert Jenrick: In England, 95% of eligible non-hospitalised patients who received an antiviral treatment were treated within five days from the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. The average treatment time was 3.5 to four days, with typically faster treatment times for oral antivirals which are suitable to be taken at home. Those patients at high risk of COVID-19 who are ineligible to access treatments via COVID-19 Medicines Delivery Units can access antivirals via the PANORAMIC national study.

Health Services: North West

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent progress his Department has made on tackling backlogs in NHS provision in the North-West as a result of the outbreak of covid-19.

Robert Jenrick: In the North West, the number of people waiting two years or more for treatment has been reduced by 86% between January and June 2022.The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ commits the National Health Service to deliver nine million additional treatments and diagnostic procedures over the next three years and approximately 30% more elective activity by 2024/25, compared to pre-pandemic levels. We have allocated more than £8 billion to support the delivery plan, in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund.

Strokes: Mechanical Thrombectomy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is her policy that all stroke patients should have access to thrombectomy services.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the (a) effectiveness for stroke patients and (b) potential financial merits for the NHS of providing access to thrombectomy.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will hold discussions with representatives of the Stroke Association on access to mechanical thrombectomy for people who have had an ischaemic cerebral event.

Will Quince: NHS England has committed to increase the delivery of mechanical thrombectomy to 10%, to allow a further 1,600 patients to live independently following a stroke. The latest available data shows that 2.8% of patients are currently receiving thrombectomy services.Thrombectomy is available in 24 centres in England, with two non-neuroscience centres under development to improve access. Integrated stroke delivery networks and thrombectomy providers are developing services to provide access in England 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Evidence shows that mechanical thrombectomy performed within six hours of the onset of symptoms can reduce brain damage and prevent or limit long-term disability. These benefits are increased with earlier intervention, reducing patient hospital bed stays and the costs of longer-term care.While no specific discussions are planned, we will consider any such request from the Stroke Association for a meeting to discuss mechanical thrombectomy, subject to diary commitments.

Health Professions: Solihull

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the provision of healthcare workers in Solihull constituency.

Robert Jenrick: Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care System’s (ICS) ‘I Can’ programme provides local unemployed people with an opportunity to access health and social care careers, with training and support provided. In the eight months since the launch of the programme, approximately 200 unemployed people have been placed in National Health Service jobs. The ICS also submitted a bid to support international nursing in November 2021 and 347 international nurses have since been recruited to local trusts.University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust’s trainee nursing associate programme currently has 380 trainees, with a further 140 commencing in October 2022. The Trust has more than 150 qualified nursing associates, with more qualifying in November 2022. Birmingham and Solihull are participating in a national programme to improve staff retention by using data to identify high risk areas and proposing programmes, such as vacancy rates, sickness rates, reasons for absence and staff survey responses.

Radiotherapy: Medical Treatments

Sarah Champion: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate her Department has made of the radiotherapy capacity required to reduce waiting times for cancer treatment.

Will Quince: In July 2022, 92.3% of cancer patients received radiotherapy treatment. In 2022/23, NHS England will provide additional support to local systems to plan service provision, which will take into account the impact of fewer fraction treatment protocols and investment in newer, faster treatment machines.

Long Covid: Medical Treatments

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she is taking steps to prevent unlicensed private Long Covid clinics from issuing unproven and potentially dangerous treatments.

Will Quince: The Department advises that new treatments for Post-COVID-19 syndrome should only be accessed through regulated clinical trials. If appropriate, general practitioners will refer patients to a National Health Service specialist Post-COVID-19 syndrome clinic for support and treatment from a wide range of health professionals which can address the physical and psychological aspects of ongoing symptoms. We have invested over £224 million to support those with Post-COVID-19 syndrome and established 90 specialist services.

Fungi: Infectious Diseases

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the current level of funding for research into fungal infections is; and what the projected budget for such research is for the next five years.

Robert Jenrick: The Department’s National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including fungal infection research. However, it is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality. In the last five years, the NIHR has invested more than £6 million in research into fungal infection.

Dental Services: Staff

Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to bring forward a workforce strategy for the dental sector which includes (a) NHS, (b) mixed and (c) private dentist practices.

Will Quince: In July 2022, we announced measures to reform National Health Service dental services to increase access for patients and remunerate dentists fairly for caring for patients with complex needs. We are also working with NHS England and the sector on longer-term improvements. Health Education England has undertaken a three-year review of education and training which is being implemented through the Dental Education Reform Programme to improve recruitment and retention.The Department has commissioned NHS England to develop a long-term plan for workforce groups and professions in the NHS for the next 15 years, which will include dental care professionals. The conclusions of this work will be available in due course.

Infectious Diseases: Disease Control

Beth Winter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, through which consultation process or processes, have (a) relevant stakeholders and (b) members of the public been given the opportunity to contribute to the UK’s position on the World Health Organization’s new international agreement on pandemic preparedness and response; and if he will publish a list of participants.

Robert Jenrick: The United Kingdom is engaging with a range of stakeholders on the instrument, through roundtables with civil society and discussion with relevant groups. Non-state actors had the opportunity to present views on the working draft of the instrument at recent meetings of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, the Member State-led process for drafting and negotiating the pandemic instrument. The World Health Organization (WHO) is holding public hearings seeking input from interested parties, including the public. We will continue engaging relevant stakeholders as it progresses.

Rare Diseases: Screening

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many whole exome sequencing tests were carried out by the NHS in order to detect rare diseases in individuals in each of the last three years; and what recent assessment she has made of their effectiveness.

Will Quince: The available data shows that since April 2021, 16,022 whole exome sequencing tests have been carried out to detect rare diseases. While NHS England does not hold data on the effectiveness of all exome sequencing tests, the Rapid Whole Exome Sequencing Service for acutely unwell children was launched in 2019 has provided or confirmed a diagnosis for approximately 45% of children tested via this service. The National Fetal Exome Sequencing Service launched by the National Health Service in October 2020 has provided or confirmed a diagnosis to approximately 40% of pregnant women tested via this service.

NHS England: Complaints

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to ensure that NHS England deal with complaints and other issues raised with them by hon. Members in a speedy and efficient manner.

Robert Jenrick: Complaints to NHS England should be handled in accordance with the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman's principles of good complaint handling, which include dealing with complaints promptly and avoiding unnecessary delay. NHS England’s complaints guidance states that it aims to respond within 40 working days. If NHS England have not provided a response within six months, it will write to the complainant to explain the reasons for the delay and advise when a response is likely to be received.

NHS and Care Workers: Migrant Workers

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of current vacancies within (a) the NHS and (b) the social care workforce the Government expects to be filled by workers recruited from overseas by the end of 2022; and what recent steps his Department has taken to facilitate the recruitment of those workers.

Robert Jenrick: No specific estimate has been made. However, the Government has committed to making more effective use of international recruitment to increase the National Health Service and social care workforce. International recruitment has the potential to fill thousands of vacancies, allowing the health and care sectors to benefit from the skills of overseas workers wishing to work in England.

Ambulance Services: Standards

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce ambulance handover delays.

Robert Jenrick: NHS England has written to all trusts and systems to ensure that actions are taken to prevent ambulances waiting for longer than 30 minutes before transferring patients to the accident and emergency (A&E) department. This includes immediately moving patients who have completed emergency medical care from A&E to maintain capacity for new patients.NHS England is providing targeted support to some of the hospitals facing the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients into the care of hospitals, to identify short and longer-term interventions. In 2020/21, £450 million was invested to upgrade A&E facilities in over 120 National Health Service trusts to increase capacity, reduce overcrowding and minimise delays in ambulance handovers.

Dental Services: Northern Ireland

Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made for the implications of her policies of the level of recruitment and retention of dentists in Northern Ireland.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made.

Ambulance Services: Standards

Bim Afolami: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to reduce ambulance waiting times.

Robert Jenrick: NHS England has allocated an £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements. The National Health Service is also investing £20 million in the ambulance fleet in each year to 2024/25. This will increase ambulance capacity by reducing the age profile of the fleet, increasing productivity and capacity while decreasing emissions through 30 zero emission ambulances.The number of NHS ambulance staff and support staff has increased by almost 40% since April 2010. Health Education England has a mandated target to train 3,000 paramedic graduates nationally per annum from 2021 to 2024. St John Ambulance has been contracted to deliver auxiliary ambulance services, providing national surge capacity of at least 5,000 hours per month as needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure, allowing NHS ambulance crews to respond to emergency calls.

Strokes: Health Services

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help reduce waiting times for stroke patients to be admitted to a stroke unit.

Will Quince: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ sets out how the National Health Service will recover and expand elective services over the next three years, including in stroke units. We have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to increase elective activity. This is in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund made available in 2021/22. The Delivery plan and the National Stroke Programme is supporting local organisations to deliver improved prevention measures, treatment and care for stroke patients in England.

Ambulance Services: Standards

Munira Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent (a) steps his Department has taken and (b) research his Department has commissioned to understand the (i) causes and (ii) potential solutions of the pressures being experienced by NHS Ambulance Trusts; and how much funding was allocated to that work.

Robert Jenrick: The Department funds research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including ambulance services. While the NIHR do not usually ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics, research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. Since April 2017, there have been 15 research projects on ambulance services with combined funding of £12,513,665.NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements. This is further to a £20 million investment to upgrade the ambulance fleet, which aims to increase ambulance capacity by reducing the age profile of the fleet, increasing productivity and the size of the fleet while decreasing emissions.Additionally, St John Ambulance has been contracted to deliver auxiliary ambulance services, providing national surge capacity of at least 5,000 hours per month as needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure, allowing NHS ambulance crews to focus on responding to emergency calls. Ambulance trusts receive continuous central monitoring and support from the NHS England’s National Ambulance Coordination Centre.

Ambulance Services: Dorset

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle increased waiting times for ambulances in Dorset.

Robert Jenrick: NHS England advice that there are a range of interventions to address increased waiting time for ambulances in Dorset. These measures aim to improve the flow of patients through accident and emergency departments, reduce waiting times and delays in the transfer of patients from ambulances and allow crews to respond to calls more efficiently.This includes the earlier identification of patients needing complex discharge support and ensuring multi-disciplinary engagement in the discharge plans to increase bed capacity. An expected date of discharge is determined within 48 hours of admission. The operation of transfer of care hubs is being streamlined and demand and capacity modelling for local and community systems is being developed.NHS England has allocated an additional £150 million for ambulance service pressures in 2022/23, supporting improvements to response times through additional call handler recruitment, retention and other funding requirements. A further £20 million has been invested in the upgrade of the ambulance fleet by reducing its age profile and fuel emissions while increasing productivity and capacity. Additionally, St John Ambulance has been contracted to deliver auxiliary ambulance services, providing national surge capacity of at least 5,000 hours per month as needed to support the ambulance response during periods of increased pressure, allowing National Health Service ambulance crews to respond to emergency calls.

Evusheld: Procurement

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Government's decision not to procure Evusheld, what steps she will take to help ensure that immunocompromised people are protected from covid-19 this winter.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi- agency initiative, RAPID C-19 and a national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and agree that this should now be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation. The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.Immunocompromised patients are a priority cohort for COVID-19 treatments. Sotrovimab, a neutralising monoclonal antibody and antiviral drugs are available for patients in the community at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19, hospitalisations or death. Individuals aged five years old and over with weakened immune systems will be offered an autumn booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

NHS: Dental Services

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the accessibility of NHS dentist appointments.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made. However, in 2022/23 we have provided an additional £50 million to increase dental activity and patient appointments and dental and orthodontic practices were asked to deliver 100% of contracted activity from July 2022. Where patients are unable to access an urgent dental appointment, NHS 111 can provide assistance.

Evusheld

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it remains her Department's policy to not procure Evusheld.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi- agency initiative, RAPID C-19 and a national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and agree that this should now be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation. The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.

NHS: Dental Services

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase access to NHS dentists.

Will Quince: In July 2022, we announced measures to improve to the National Health Service dentistry to increase access, target care for patients with higher oral health needs and ensure that dentists are more fairly rewarded. We are also working with NHS England and the sector on longer-term improvements. Health Education England conducted a three-year review of education and training, which is being implemented through the Dental Education Reform Programme to improve recruitment and retention.

Cancer: Health Services

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of creating a tsar role to oversee improvements in cancer services delivered by the NHS in England.

Will Quince: No specific assessment has been made.The current National Clinical Director for cancer is Professor Peter Johnson, a highly esteemed cancer clinician and researcher.

Long Covid

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to support people with long covid.

Will Quince: NHS England has invested £224 million to provide care for people with Post-COVID-19 syndrome, with 90 adult and 14 paediatric specialist services operating in England. These services provide an assessment and direct patients to appropriate care pathways which provide support and treatment. In addition, NHS England’s ‘2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance’ sets out actions to improve Post-COVID-19 syndrome care and services. We have also invested approximately £50 million in research to improve understanding of Post-COVID-19 syndrome and the most effective treatments.

Members: Correspondence

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 25 July 2022 from the hon. Member for Sefton Central on the subject of funding for a new health centre in Maghull, reference BE7947.

Robert Jenrick: A reply was sent to the hon. Member on 20 September.

Medicine: Education

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to increase the number of university places for UK medical students.

Robert Jenrick: In England, the Government has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England – a 25% increase over three years. This expansion was completed in September 2020 and has delivered five new medical schools. In addition, the cap on medical school places was lifted for students who completed A-Levels in 2020 and in 2021 and had an offer from a university in England to study medicine, subject to their grades. While there are no current plans to further increase the number of places, it is kept under review. The number of university places for medical students in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.

Protective Clothing: Storage

Angela Rayner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) Government officials and (b) officials in her Department are employed to oversee the storage of personal protective equipment.

Robert Jenrick: The Department has 3.5 full time equivalent staff whose role is wholly dedicated to overseeing the management of personal protective equipment storage.

Ambulance Services: Ashfield

Lee Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on response times for ambulances in Ashfield and Eastwood of ambulances being sent to patients who did not require emergency care.

Robert Jenrick: We have no plans to make a specific assessment.National Health Service ambulance trusts employ sophisticated triage systems to minimise the unnecessary deployment of ambulance resources. The NHS is also increasing the capacity of NHS 111, including a £50 million investment in 2022/23 to ensure people receive the appropriate care and avoid unnecessary demand on accident and emergency (A&E) and ambulance services.NHS England advises that delays in handing over ambulance patients to A&E, rather than ambulances being sent to patients that do not require emergency care, remains the largest operational challenge for ambulance services, including those in Ashfield and Eastwood. NHS England has written to all trusts and systems to to ensure ambulances are not held for longer than 30 minutes before transferring patients into the emergency department, including immediately moving patients who have completed their emergency medical care from the A&E to create capacity for new patients.NHS England is also providing targeted support to some of the hospitals facing the greatest delays in the handover of ambulance patients into the care of hospitals to identify short and longer-term interventions to improve delays and allow ambulances to respond to emergency calls.

Trimethylaminuria

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the adequacy of funding for research into methods for (a) treating and (b) curing Trimethylaminuria.

Robert Jenrick: No specific assessment has been made. The Department funds the majority of research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). While the NIHR has not funded any studies into the treatment and cure of trimethylaminuria in the last five years, it has supported the delivery of two such studies via its infrastructure. The NIHR’s expenditure on research is more than £1 billion per year, with research proposals competing for the funding available. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made based on the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Health Services

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Life sciences vision published on 6 July 2021, what steps (a) the Government and (b) the NHS plan to take to reduce COPD mortality in the UK.

Robert Jenrick: The National Asthma and COPD Audit Programme, led by the Royal College of Physicians, aims to improve the quality of care, services and clinical outcomes for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by collecting and providing data on a range of indicators. Through the NHS Long Term Plan, access to pulmonary rehabilitation will be expanded by 2028. This is an exercise and education programme for COPD, with 90% of patients who complete the programme experiencing improved exercise capacity or increased quality of life. The expansion of pulmonary rehabilitation services over 10 years aims to prevent 500,000 exacerbations and avoid 80,000 hospital admissions.The Government has worked with global academic and industrial leaders to identify areas of scientific and research potential which could address the seven identified healthcare missions in the ‘Life Sciences Vision’. The respiratory mission aims to reduce pressure on the National Health Service and improve clinical outcomes, treatment and diagnosis.Detailed implementation plans are being developed to deliver the Life Sciences Vision. We are working with academics, the NHS and industry on plans for the respiratory mission to reduce morbidity and mortality due to respiratory disease, including COPD.

Paxlovid

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many doses of Paxlovid procured by the Government are due to reach their expiry date in the next two months.

Robert Jenrick: No doses are due to reach the expiry date in the next two months.

Hospitals: Television

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of TV service costs in hospitals for low-income patients.

Robert Jenrick: No specific assessment has been made.

Heart Diseases: Medical Treatments

Dr Philippa Whitford: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if her Department will take steps to expand the number of hospitals providing transcatheter aortic valve implantation for aortic stenosis in Integrated Care Systems with only surgical aortic valve replacement available.

Robert Jenrick: NHS England is finalising a revised commissioning position to enable hospitals to provide transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) and surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) for symptomatic severe aortic stenosis in adults. Patients in need of an aortic valve replacement will be assessed to determine whether a SAVR or TAVI procedure best meets their needs.

Doctors: Registration

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September to Question 45643, what data her Department regularly requires from the GMC on the number of currently licensed doctors, for the purposes of NHS workforce planning.

Robert Jenrick: The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of all medical doctors practising in the United Kingdom which sets and enforces the standards all doctors must adhere to. The GMC is responsible for operational matters, including holding data on the number of currently licensed doctors. The Department does not require the GMC to provide data on the number of currently licensed doctors for National Health Service workforce planning. However, the Department accesses data published by the GMC, including at its online archive at the following link:https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/what-we-do-and-why/data-and-research

Immunosuppression: Ministerial Responsibility

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which Minister in her Department will have responsibility for (a) clinically vulnerable, (b) clinically extremely vulnerable and (c) immunosuppressed people.

Robert Jenrick: I have Ministerial portfolio responsibility for immunosuppressed people.The success of the COVID-19 vaccination programme means the requirement for shielding and identifying people as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) is no longer necessary. However, there remains a smaller number of people whose immune system means they are at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19, despite vaccination.

Coronavirus: Disease Control

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will meet with (a) clinically vulnerable, (b) clinically extremely vulnerable and (c) immunosuppressed patient access groups to discuss future covid-19 protections.

Robert Jenrick: Ministers and officials regularly engage with charities and organisations representing and supporting immunocompromised and immunosuppressed groups. This engagement continues and a forum is planned shortly to hear stakeholder’s concerns and progress on the enhanced protection programme.

Ambulance Services: Private Sector

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total spend is by NHS England ambulance trusts on (a) private ambulances and (b) taxis in the each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: The information requested is not held centrally.

NHS Trusts: Pensions

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many NHS England Trusts offer pension recycling, in which additional salary is offered in place of employer pension contributions, for consultants.

Robert Jenrick: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Brain: Surgery

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the longest waiting time was for brain surgery in NHS England in the last 12 months.

Robert Jenrick: The information is not held in the format requested. Data on waiting times from referral to treatment for specific procedures is not collected centrally.

Antimicrobials: Procurement

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has had recent discussions with her international counterparts on the subscription deal for two antimicrobials, cefiderocol and ceftazidime–avibactam, for the NHS in England.

Robert Jenrick: The Department has raised awareness of England’s subscription-style payment model for antimicrobials through a range of bilateral and multilateral forums. The Department has also advocated for other countries to share results of similar models to address the market failures in antibiotic research and development and/or to develop suitable models.The Department has engaged with Senators in the United States of America who are co-sponsoring the PASTEUR Act, which aims to establish a subscription model. We have also recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sweden which includes commitments to incentivise antimicrobial research and development.During the United Kingdom’s G7 Presidency, health and finance Ministers committed to explore options to incentivise new antimicrobials through research and development and onto the market and ensure security of supplies. Ministers have committed to report on progress during Japan's presidency next year.

Gastrointestinal System: Surgery

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of mandatory reporting for NHS Trusts on the (a) number of patients that have stomas and (b) type of stoma that has been created.

Robert Jenrick: No specific assessment has been made.

Dementia: Clinical Trials

Neale Hanvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what further measures she will take to raise awareness of the importance of (a) improving the clinical research infrastructure in the UK; and (b) increasing clinical trial participation in relation to the development of new treatments for dementia.

Robert Jenrick: ‘Saving and Improving Lives: The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery’, published in March 2021, sets out the ambition to create people-centred, pro-innovation and digitally enabled clinical research infrastructure. ‘The Future of UK Clinical Research Delivery: 2022 to 2025 implementation plan’, published on 30 June 2022, summarises the actions we will take over the next three years.The platform Join Dementia Research, funded and delivered by the Departmentally funded National Institute for Health and Care Research with Alzheimer’s Society, Alzheimer Scotland and Alzheimer’s Research UK, allows people to register an interest in dementia research and be matched to trials. This aims to improve participation and diversity in dementia research.

NHS and Care Workers: Coronavirus

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many (a) NHS and (b) social care staff have died from covid-19 since 9 March 2020.

Robert Jenrick: Data published by the Office for National Statistics shows that between 9 March 2020 and 31 March 2022, there were 796 registered deaths involving COVID-19 among healthcare workers and 1,243 deaths among social care workers in England aged 20 to 64 years old, using the last known occupation. The definition of healthcare workers used will include both those employed in the National Health Service and other healthcare sector workers.

Muscular Dystrophy: Research

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research is being undertaken into the (a) cause of and (b) potential treatments for Distal Myopathy-5 and ADSSL1 Myopathy.

Robert Jenrick: The Department funds the majority of research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR has not funded any research into the cause and potential treatments for Distal Myopathy-5 and ADSSL1 Myopathy in the last five years.

Cystic Fibrosis: Prescriptions

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to provide free prescriptions to people with cystic fibrosis; and if she will consider the potential merits of ensuring that all people with long-term health conditions have access to free prescriptions.

Robert Jenrick: There are no current plans to review or extend the prescription charge medical exemptions list to include cystic fibrosis or other long-term conditions. Approximately 89% of prescription items are dispensed free of charge in England and there are arrangements in place to help those with the greatest need. Eligibility depends on the patient’s age, whether they are in qualifying full-time education, whether they are pregnant or have recently given birth, or whether they are in receipt of certain benefits or a war pension. Those with cystic fibrosis or another long-term condition may therefore meet the eligibility criteria for prescription charge exemptions and be in receipt of free prescriptions.To support those who do not qualify for an exemption of prescription charges, the cost of prescriptions can be capped by purchasing a prescription pre-payment certificate, which can be paid for in instalments. A holder of a 12-month certificate can get all the prescriptions they need for just over £2 per week. Additionally, people on a low income who do not qualify for an exemption from prescription charges can also seek help under the NHS Low Income Service, which provides help with health costs on an income-related basis.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: Finance

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what additional funding her Department has made available to Blackpool Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust to tackle care backlogs associated with the covid-19 outbreak.

Robert Jenrick: The ‘Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care’ set out a target to deliver a 10% increase in elective activity compared to pre-pandemic levels, rising to 30% by 2024/25. In 2021/22, the Department provided an additional £39 billion to support health and care services, including a £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund to increase elective activity. n Lancashire and South Cumbria, £60.5 million was allocated for the recovery of elective services. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust received £15.1 million from this allocation, with a further £2.5 million from specialised commissioners to support the restoration of tertiary activity.

NHS Digital: Expenditure

Lee Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much NHS Digital has spent on advertisements that raise awareness of serious medical conditions in each of the last three years.

Robert Jenrick: There has been no specific expenditure.

NHS: Fees and Charges

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is her policy to allow NHS bodies to invoice a patient for hospital care not excluded from the Charging Regulations prior to evidencing that a patient does not have entitlement to free NHS care.

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance has been provided to NHS bodies on the criteria needed to exempt patients from NHS debt where they have been determined to not be ordinarily resident including (a) which criteria are used to determine if such a patient is destitute and (b) any other criteria.

Robert Jenrick: Guidance to providers of National Health Service-funded secondary care states that where a person cannot support their entitlement to care free of charge, the provider may decide to charge for treatment. In making this decision, the provider should judge each case on its own merits and take any reasonable steps to ascertain a patient's claim that an exemption applies. If charged, the person can subsequently claim reimbursement where there is sufficient evidence to show an entitlement to free treatment at the time it was given.The guidance also states that any treatment a clinician determines to be immediately necessary or urgent must never be delayed due to charging. Where a charge applies it cannot be waived for any reason. However, the guidance sets out circumstances when providers may write off the charge in the accounts and not pursue the debt, including if the patient is destitute or genuinely without access to funds. The Department works with NHS England to support NHS providers in implementing the Regulations appropriately. The Department and NHS England are producing additional guidance relating to debt and destitution to support relevant bodies dealing with financially vulnerable patients.

Occupational Therapy: NHS England

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many occupational therapists were employed by NHS England in (a) 2010 and (b) 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent occupational therapists working in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England in May 2010 and May 2022.May 2010 13,678May 2022 15,976 Source: NHS Digital Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce Statistics

Diabetes: Children

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many children have accessed NHS accident and emergency services with Type 2 diabetes symptoms in each of the last five years.

Robert Jenrick: This data is not held in the format requested.The following table shows the number of unplanned attendances at accident and emergency (A&E) departments in each of the last five years where a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes has been recorded and the age of the patient on attendance was between 0 and 18 years old. However, this does not represent the number of patients, as an individual may attend A&E on more than one occasion in any given period.Year Attendances2017/18 122018/19 452019/20 582020/21 672021/22 92 Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, Emergency Care Data Set (ECDS), NHS DigitalNotes:1. Activity in English National Health Service hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector.2. ECDS is a very young data set and 2017/18 was the first year that any data was collected. As such there were known issues with some providers being unable to submit data to the ECDS and with the quality of the data which was submitted. Therefore, the increase in numbers seen from 2017/18 to 2020/21 should be interpreted in the context of these improvements in data completeness and data quality.

Evusheld: Procurement

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason the Government decided not to procure Evusheld.

Robert Jenrick: The Government has decided not to procure Evusheld for prevention through emergency routes at this time. This is a decision based on independent clinical advice by the multi- agency initiative, RAPID C-19 and a national expert policy working group. These groups considered a range of evidence, including clinical trial data, in vitro analysis and emerging observational studies and concluded there is currently insufficient evidence of benefit to recommend deployment. The Chief Medical Officer for England is content that the correct process for providing clinical advice has been followed and agree that this should now be referred to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for further evaluation. The Department intends to publish further details of the clinical advice received shortly.

NHS: Vacancies

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps is he taking to reduce potential risks to patient safety driving from unfilled NHS job vacancies.

Robert Jenrick: Local National Health Service trusts are responsible for managing staffing levels and for recruiting the appropriate number of health professionals required to meet local service and patient need. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, the Care Quality Commission monitors compliance with Regulation 18 to ensure that providers have sufficient suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff, who receive effective support, supervision and development and work effectively to provide safe care.The latest workforce statistics show that there are now more than 29,500 additional staff working in hospitals and commissioning support than a year ago, including over 9,600 more nurses and almost 4,100 more doctors. We have committed to deliver 50,000 more nurses by the end of this Parliament through investment in a diverse training pipeline and recruitment and retention. The Government has funded an additional 1,500 undergraduate medical school places each year for domestic students in England - a 25% increase over three years. To support improving NHS staff retention, 2020 NHS People Plan focuses on staff health and wellbeing, more support for flexible working and a renewed commitment to tackling inequality.

Evusheld

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to extend the availability of Evusheld as a covid-19 prophylactic treatment through clinical trials for immunocompromised individuals.

Robert Jenrick: The Department’s clinical advisors have recommended that a clinical trial of Evusheld should be considered to understand the connection between in vitro tests and clinical outcomes for current and future variants and evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a dose of 600 milligrams, which was not tested in randomised controlled trials. We are currently exploring options for such a trial.

Speech and Language Therapy: Vacancies

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to address the shortage of speech and language therapists in (a) schools and (b) hospitals.

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help recruit more speech and language therapists in (a) schools and (b) hospitals.

Robert Jenrick: The special educational needs and disabilities green paper ‘SEND review: right support, right place, right time’ proposes to commission analysis to ensure that the health needs of children and young people with SEND are supported through effective workforce planning. We plan to work with Health Education England, NHS England and the Department for Education to understand the demand for support for children and young people with SEND from the therapy and diagnostic workforce. It is the responsibility of individual employers, including schools and hospitals, to plan staffing levels according to local service priorities. To support the supply of more speech and language therapists to the National Health Service, since September 2020 all eligible students can apply for a non-repayable training grant of a minimum of £5,000 per academic year, with further financial support available for childcare, accommodation and travel costs.

Speech and Language Therapy: NHS England

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many speech and language therapists were employed by NHS England in (a) 2010 and (b) 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent speech and language therapists working in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England in May 2010 and May 2022.May 20105,760May 20226,821 Source: NHS Digital Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce Statistics

Dermatology: NHS England

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many dermatologists were employed by the NHS in England in (a) 2017 and (b) 2022.

Robert Jenrick: The following table shows the number of full-time equivalent doctors working in the speciality of dermatology in National Health Service trusts and clinical commissioning groups in England in May 2017 and May 2022.May 2017990May 20221,191 Source: NHS Digital Hospital and Community Health Service Workforce StatisticsNote:The data includes doctors in Foundation Years 1 and 2 who may not specialise in dermatology upon completion of the foundation years.

Dementia: Clinical Trials

Bob Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many phase (a) I, (b) II and (c) III dementia clinical trials have been hosted in England in each of the last ten years; and how many participants were recruited for each of those trials.

Robert Jenrick: The number of phase I, II and III dementia clinical trials supported by the National Institute for Health and Social Care Research’s Clinical Research Network in England in each of the last 10 years and the number of participants recruited is shown in the attached tables.NIHR-supported dementia clinical trials (docx, 21.0KB)

Nurses: Training

Wes Streeting: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the number of qualified nurses trained in England who have graduated in each of the last six years.

Robert Jenrick: The information requested is not held centrally.However, the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s data on nursing undergraduate qualifiers by higher education providers in England in 2019/20 and 2020/21 is shown in the following table.2019/202020/2121,73020,620

NHS: Staff

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing investment for mental health support for NHS staff.

Robert Jenrick: In 2022/23, £45 million funding has been allocated to support the continuation of the national mental health and wellbeing support offer, which includes the 40 mental health and wellbeing hubs for health and social care staff in England. These hubs provide proactive outreach and clinical assessment and enable rapid access to evidence based mental health services and support.The Professional Nurse Advocacy programme is delivering staff training and restorative supervision in England and the NHS Practitioner Health service provides a national support service for staff with more complex needs, such as trauma or addictions. The national health and wellbeing offer also includes a role for Wellbeing Guardians at board level. We are strengthening the role for occupational health services to a more integrated, preventative partner in supporting health and wellbeing.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Health Services

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data the Government is using to assess whether the recommended IBD standards' 18-week quality indicator for bowel conditions are being met.

Robert Jenrick: While there is no specific coding to identify patients referred with a diagnosis of inflammatory bowel disease, data on waiting times for gastroenterology services is collected through tools such as the standard referral to treatment time (RTT) reports. RTT data for July 2022 is available at the following link: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/Jul22-RTT-SPN-publication-version.pdfWe have allocated more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to increase activity in elective services and reduce waiting times, including for patients with chronic and benign bowel conditions. This is in addition to the £2 billion Elective Recovery Fund and £700 million Targeted Investment Fund made available in 2021/22.

NHS: Medical Records

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason there is no single centralised system for holding NHS records; and whether she plans to introduce such a system.

Robert Jenrick: On 24 February 2022, we announced a target for 90% of National Health Service trusts to have an electronic patient record (EPR) in place by December 2023, increasing to 100% by March 2025. Individual trusts have different requirements and work directly with suppliers to customise systems and procure EPRs to meet local needs.The NHS is also piloting digital platforms to increase productivity and reduce the need for patients to repeatedly share information, by enabling clinicians and managers to manage waiting lists and improve theatre use. This will combine data from organisations within an integrated care system to assist planning and population health management and will be federated to national and regional levels. The platform will not replace existing local systems and will be used in conjunction with existing assets to support collaboration and innovation.

Dementia: Medical Treatments

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has systems in place to monitor developments in global life sciences for new dementia treatments; and if she will make a statement.

Robert Jenrick: The National Health Service Accelerated Access Collaborative and Commercial Medicines Directorate monitor the development of innovative new medicines, including those to treat dementia.

Department for Education

Apprentices: British National (Overseas)

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether young people from Hong Kong on the extended British National (Overseas) visa will be able to immediately access apprenticeship schemes in the UK without having to wait for three years of residence.

Andrea Jenkyns: Hong Kong British National (Overseas) visa holders are required to meet the same residency requirements as most other non-UK nationals. The residency requirements ensure that public funding for apprenticeships is targeted at those with established ties to the United Kingdom.They are able to live, work and study in the UK, but will not have access to public funds.They may start an apprenticeship, and access government funds for training and assessment, once they meet the residency requirement, and can do so before they are able to apply for indefinite leave to remain or citizenship.

BTEC Qualifications and T-levels: Assessments

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will place in the Library of the House a copy of directions given by (a) his Department and (b) the Chief Regulator of Ofqual to examination boards in respect of (i) delays to BTEC results and (ii) the award of Health and Science T-level grades in the period between August and September 2022.

Andrea Jenkyns: The Secretary of State for Education has no powers to issue a direction to awarding organisations.Directions from Ofqual to examination boards are a matter for Ofqual. The Chief Regulator, Dr Jo Saxton, has confirmed that she would welcome an enquiry directly from the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South, so that Ofqual can understand more fully the request and ensure that it is of most assistance in answering the question.

Children: Day Care

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has plans to increase Government funding for early years providers.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department has spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on its early education entitlements and the government will continue to support families with their childcare costs.In the 2021 Spending Review, we announced additional funding of £160 million in the 2022/23 financial year, £180 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £170 million in the 2024/25 financial year, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. This is for local authorities to increase hourly rates paid to childcare providers and reflects cost pressures and changes in the number of eligible children anticipated at the time of the Spending Review.For the 2022/23 financial year, the department has increased the hourly funding rates for all local authorities by 21p an hour for the 2-year-old entitlement and, for the vast majority of areas, by 17p an hour for the 3 and 4-year-old entitlement.Over the summer, the department is consulting on proposals to update the formulae used to deliver the early years entitlements funding. This will ensure the funding system remains fair, effective and responsive to changing levels of need across different areas.The department expects to announce the early years funding rates for local authorities for the 2023/24 financial year in the autumn in the normal way.

Special Educational Needs: Devon

Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the forecast on 13 July 2022 by Devon County Council of a Dedicated Schools Grant overspend of £32.1 million, what assessment he has made of the impact this will have on that council's ability to improve (a) provision and (b) outcomes for pupils with SEND.

Kelly Tolhurst: Local authorities are statutorily responsible for meeting the special educational needs of the children and young people in their area. In doing so, they must take responsibility for the effective and sustainable management of their high needs systems and associated spending. Overspends on local authorities’ high needs blocks are for local authorities to manage, and they do not affect an authority’s duty to carry out its statutory responsibilities.In 2021, Devon was invited to participate in the Safety Valve intervention programme for local authorities with the very highest dedicated schools grant (DSG) deficits. The Safety Valve programme is not a cost cutting exercise, it is focused on improving performance of local high needs systems and ensuring this is achieved in a sustainable way. The programme requires the local authorities involved to develop substantial plans for reform to their high needs systems to rapidly place them on a sustainable footing. If the local authorities produce DSG management plans that create lasting sustainability and are effective for children and young people, the department will provide financial support to the authority, to assist in the elimination of its DSG deficit, so long as the authority delivers on its plans.Devon took part in the programme in 2021, and negotiations are not yet concluded. The local authority is developing plans to improve both the high needs system and its financial management. Their focus on improving outcomes for children and young people should be supported by plans to reach a more sustainable position and reduce its overspend.

Primary Education: Admissions

Kim Leadbeater: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department plans to issue renewed guidance in relation to summer-born children; and if he will take steps to allow parents a greater degree of choice in deciding in what year a child should begin school.

Jonathan Gullis: The Department continues to support the right of parents to decide whether to send their children, including summer-born children, to school before they reach compulsory school age.The Department has taken several steps to improve the arrangements for parents of summer-born children requesting a delayed start in reception class. The guidance for admission authorities and advice for parents, published in September 2020, is helping to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the duties imposed by the School Admissions Code when responding to requests. The data reflects an improvement in practice, with almost 9 in 10 requests for delayed entry to reception now approved. Guidance can be accessed here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/921255/Guidance_for_parents_September_2020.pdf.My noble Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the School and College System, issued a statement for all admission authorities in July 2022 which made clear that it can seldom be in a child’s best interests to miss the essential early numeracy and literacy that takes place in the reception year. The statement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/summer-born-children-school-admission/statement-for-local-authorities-schools-and-admission-authorities-on-the-admission-of-summer-born-children-to-school-from-baroness-barran-parliamen.This statement, together with the published guidance for admission authorities and advice for parents, helps ensure both admission authorities and parents are clear on the options available and have the same expectations.The Department will continue to communicate with admission authorities through guidance and messaging to ensure that decisions are made in the best interests of the child.

Further Education: Finance

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has had discussions with further education college principals on the adequacy of the level of college budgets in autumn 2022.

Andrea Jenkyns: The department is in continual dialogue with the Association of Colleges (AoC), which is the representative body for Further Education Colleges, most recently over the summer when senior officials met with the AoC Chief Executive regarding college finances.We also have an established process for monitoring college financial resilience, which includes colleges submitting financial forecasts to the department on an annual basis.In addition, to better understand the energy cost pressures colleges are facing and the potential impact of this, we sent out a short survey for colleges to complete and return and we are analysing the information with a view to determine next steps. We will use the information from this survey alongside the recent announcement regarding the Government Energy Bill Relief Scheme to support colleges with the energy cost pressures.

Schools: Uniforms

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, in the context of the rising cost of (a) food and (b) domestic bills, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a temporary moratorium on the wearing of school uniforms in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools.

Jonathan Gullis: The Department is not making such an assessment.

Further Education: Energy

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he is taking steps to support further education colleges with energy payments this winter.

Andrea Jenkyns: On Thursday 8 September, my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced measures to tackle current issues in the UK energy market, including the introduction of an Energy Price Guarantee to limit the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas and electricity.To better understand the energy cost pressures colleges are facing and the potential impact of this, the department sent out a short survey for colleges to complete. The department is analysing the information returned with a view to determine next steps.We will use the information from this survey alongside the recent announcement regarding the government Energy Bill Relief Scheme to support colleges with the energy cost pressures.

BTEC Qualifications: Assessments

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons BTEC students studying with multiple examination boards had delays in receiving their results in summer 2022; and if he will make a statement.

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department received information from examination boards on (a) delays to BTEC results experienced by students and (b) the Health and Science T-level grades in summer 2022; and if he will make a statement.

Andrea Jenkyns: Final grades for BTECs are awarded differently to GCSEs and A levels – they are modular assessments from a range of different sources and can be awarded year-round. A claim needs to be sent to the awarding organisation for the final grade to be calculated. If this claim is not finalised the final award cannot be made. The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) is responsible for ensuring that awarding organisations deliver qualifications in line with their regulations, this includes the awarding of grades. The department met daily with Ofqual and UCAS to ensure swift action was taken to get any delayed grades to students promptly, particularly those who needed their results for a higher education place. These meetings ended when we were fully assured that these students had received their grades.Ofqual has now initiated a full review of what happened, to establish the contributing factors, and confirmed they will take regulatory action, if appropriate.The mid-course grades for assessments taken this summer by Health and Science T Level students were sent to the ‘Manage T Level Results’ service, administered by the department. Since then, we have worked closely with Ofqual, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, the awarding organisation concerned and with schools and colleges, to develop mitigations that support students to receive grades that reflect their performance and will allow them to progress to the next stage of their careers.

Schools: Buildings

Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 September 2022 to Question 42001 on Academies and Maintained Schools: Health and Safety, if he will place in the Library a list of the school buildings in England, by local authority, which have one or more buildings classified as in Category D in terms of condition need.

Jonathan Gullis: In May 2021, the Department published summary findings of the Condition Data Collection (CDC) programme in the report, ‘Condition of School Buildings Survey – Key Findings’. The report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/989912/Condition_of_School_Buildings_Survey_CDC1_-_key_findings_report.pdf.The Department plans to publish full school level building condition grades for all construction types from the CDC programme later this year.

Schools: Finance

Mr Tobias Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if his Department will increase funding for schools and colleges in the context of rising inflation.

Jonathan Gullis: Schools and colleges will benefit from the Government’s Energy Price Guarantee, which commences on the 1 October 2022 and will be available until at least 31 March 2023. This will cap how much schools and colleges need to spend on their energy, giving greater certainty over their budgets over the winter months.The Government is also providing schools with the largest cash boost in a decade. Following the 2021 Spending Review, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) will increase by £7 billion in 2024/25, compared to 2021/22. This includes a £4 billion increase in 2022/23 compared to the previous year which is a cash increase of 7% per pupil. A further £1.5 billion will be available in 2023/24.The 2021 Spending Review has also made available an extra £1.6 billion for 16-19 education in the 2024/25 financial year, compared with financial year 2021/22.The 2021 Spending Review announced a total of £19.4 billion of capital funding to support the education sector between 2022/23 and 2024/25. We are investing £6 billion in 2022/23, including £1.8 billion to help maintain and improve the condition of school buildings; over £700 million to create new places and improve facilities for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision; and nearly £530 million for new mainstream school places. In addition, we have announced £750 million to create new places and improve facilities for children and young people with SEND or who require alternative provision for 2024; and £940 million to create new mainstream school places needed for 2024 and 2025.We are investing £2.8 billion of capital funding in skills over the Spending Review period, including funding to improve the condition of the further education college estate. This investment also provides funding for specialist equipment and facilities for T Levels, capital funding for more places for 16-19 year olds, and for Institutes of Technology.Every school’s circumstances are different, and where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Support for colleges is available from the Further Education Commissioner and the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Schools: Football

Lee Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has plans to help increase access to football training for girls in schools.

Jonathan Gullis: The Department’s expectation is that a school’s starting point should be to offer the same sport or physical activity to both girls and boys, including football.The Department is funding the ‘Your Time’ Programme, which gives girls aged 8-16 access to competitive sport and sport leadership opportunities, including football. The PE and Sport Premium of £320 million a year will continue to help primary schools to make sustainable improvements to their PE and sport offer.The Government wants to increase opportunities to take part in all types of sport and physical activity and has committed to update the cross-government School Sport and Activity Action Plan to support all pupils to take part in a wide variety of sport and activities through PE, extracurricular sport and 30 minutes of physical activity every day in school.

BTEC Qualifications

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of phasing out BTEC qualifications on the number of (a) young people and (b) young people from (i) working class and (ii) marginalised backgrounds choosing to begin further education; and whether it is taking steps to address concerns on phasing out those qualifications raised by the Protect Student Choice campaign.

Andrea Jenkyns: Qualifications such as BTECs continue to play an important role for 16 to 19-year-olds and adults. The qualifications review will ensure that these qualifications are approved for funding, where there is a clear need for skills and knowledge that A levels and T Levels cannot provide, and where they meet new quality standards.An assessment of the potential equalities impacts of the removal of funding for level 3 qualifications, which includes some BTECs, was carried out as part of the impact assessment published alongside the July 2021 policy statement on level 3 qualifications. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reforms-to-post-16-qualifications-at-level-3-in-england. Overall, the department expects the impact of our reforms to be positive. Students will have clearer choices and access to higher quality qualifications in future, including new T Levels. This will put students, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, in a stronger position to progress into further study or skilled employment.The department is committed to supporting students to progress onto level 3 qualifications in future. This is why we have launched the T Level Transition Programme for those who are not yet ready to progress to a T Level, but have the potential to succeed on it after some further preparation. Additionally, in our recent consultation on qualifications at level 2 and below, the department confirmed our intention to pilot an Academic Progression Programme to support students who may have the potential to take an academic programme at level 3, but who are not ready to do so when entering post-16 education.We expect to publish the government response to the consultation in due course.

Pupils: Refugees

Bim Afolami: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support Ukrainian refugee children into education in Hertfordshire.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department is supporting all local authorities, including Hertfordshire, to create sufficient school places for Ukrainian refugee children. As of 1 September, a total of 382 Ukrainian children had applied for school places in Hertfordshire, including 232 primary and 150 secondary applications. 221 Ukrainian children have been offered a place in a primary school and 138 children in a secondary school, a total of 359 places. Further information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-placements-for-children-from-outside-of-the-uk#dataBlock-0d7ea979-5308-4894-dbfb-08da76d991a7-tables.Moreover, the department will provide additional funding on a per pupil basis for Ukrainian children for the three phases of education at the following annual rates:Early years (ages 2 to 4) - £3,000Primary (ages 5 -11) - £6,580Secondary (ages 11-18) - £8,755 In August 2022, the department made initial payments to all local authorities that have children who arrived between March and May 2022 via the Homes for Ukraine visa route. Further payments will be made on a quarterly basis. Hertfordshire received £2,158,450 in August. The funding is for local authorities to spend on providing early years education and primary and secondary school places for children from overseas. It can be used to provide a wide range of support, including funding teachers and other school staff, school transport, uniform, English language tuition and emotional/mental health support.Ukrainian parents can apply for a school place through the in-year admissions process. We have set out this process in the Ukrainian welcome pack. For younger children, all local authorities, including Hertfordshire, will work with families to enable all children access to early years provision in their local area as soon as possible, even if these places are not in the immediate vicinity of their accommodation.

Higher Education: Admissions

Emma Hardy: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many applications were there for places on the Higher Education Short Courses trial; how many and what proportion of these applications were accepted; and how many and what proportion of those that were accepted applied for (i) fee and (ii) maintenance loans.

Andrea Jenkyns: The Higher Education Short Course Trial is testing flexible short courses at 22 providers across England. These courses are brand new, and they will be rolling out over the 2022/23 academic year.The nature of these short courses means they are not tied to the concept of the academic year and providers have discretion on when to deliver these courses. The department expects the majority of courses to start from January 2023.At this early stage in the trial, the Student Loans Company (SLC) has received 12 applications for tuition fee loans to date.[1] However, we expect more students to be participating in these courses, as they can choose to self-fund or receive funding from their employers for their tuition fees.Students apply directly to providers for these courses. The exact number of applications for Higher Education Short Course Trial courses is held by each individual provider.Maintenance loans are not provided as part of the trial. However, those who need additional support may be eligible for the short course study-costs bursary.The department will be monitoring the overall number of students on courses and the number of applications for loans at various points throughout the trial.As a new type of learning, the department is expecting demand for short courses to increase over the course of the three-year trial, as more learners become aware of these opportunities and realise the benefits flexible learning can bring. [1] Information provided by the SLC, correct as of 21/09/22.

Children: Day Care

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has he made of trends in the availability of childcare places (a) nationally and (b) in York.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department continues to monitor the sufficiency of childcare nationally. The key measure of sufficiency is whether the supply of available places is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents and children. Ofsted data currently shows that the number of places offered by providers on the Early Years Register has remained stable at 1.3 million places since August 2015. We also discuss sufficiency of provision in our regular conversations with local authorities. Local authorities are not currently reporting any substantial sufficiency issues and we have not seen a substantial number of parents unable to secure a childcare place, either nationally or in York specifically.According to findings from the 2021 childcare and early years providers survey, 70% of group-based providers reported having spare places in their full day provision and 49% reported having spare capacity on average across the week: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/childcare-and-early-years-providers-survey-2021.The department does not hold information on the trends in the availability of childcare in York.

Children: Care Homes

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference the BBC Radio 4 File on Four programme on private children's residential care companies on 3 July 2022, what steps he is taking to strike off private companies that fail to meet the legal standards required to operate residential care.

Kelly Tolhurst: Ofsted is the regulator for children’s homes in England. They operate a rigorous inspection regime for the inspection and monitoring of children's homes including ensuring that all providers meet legal standards as set out in legislation.Ofsted takes action where a children’s home is providing inadequate care. This can include suspending a provider, cancelling their registration and/or placing restrictions on the number of children that can be cared for by the home.The department is looking at ways to improve the system and are working closely with Ofsted to explore additional new powers that would strengthen their regulatory ability. Both the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and the Competition and Markets Authority’s study of the children’s social care market made recommendations for revising the legislation and guidance for children's care standards and improving market oversight. We will be responding to these reports by the end of this year.

Schools: Energy

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that schools are not substantially impacted by rising energy prices.

Jonathan Gullis: Schools will benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, which will run until at least 31 March 2023. This will reduce how much schools need to spend on their energy and give schools greater certainty over their budgets during the winter months.Any school which has signed a fixed energy contract since April 2022 will be eligible for support if, at the time they signed their contact, wholesale prices for the next 6 months were expected to be higher than the Government supported price of £211/MWh for electricity, and £75/MWh for gas.For example, a school which uses 10 MWh of electricity and 22 MWh of gas a month and signed a fixed contract giving them a current monthly energy bill of about £10,000, would receive support based on the difference between expected wholesale prices when they signed their contract and the Government supported price. For a contract signed in July 2022, this could be worth £240/MWh for electricity and £70/MWh for gas, meaning the school receives a discount of £4,000 per month, reducing their original bill by 40%.Support will also be available to schools on variable, deemed and other contracts.There will be a review in 3 months time to determine how the scheme should best be targeted beyond this period to focus support on vulnerable sectors.The details of the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bill-relief-scheme-help-for-businesses-and-other-non-domestic-customers.The Government is also providing schools with the largest cash boost in a decade. Following the 2021 Spending Review, core schools funding (including funding for both mainstream schools and high needs) is increasing by £4 billion in 2022/23 compared to the previous year.The Department knows that schools are facing higher costs and that these costs impact schools differently depending on their circumstance. The Department will continue to monitor these pressures and support schools in managing them, through our range of school resource management tools. Where schools are in serious financial difficulty, they should contact their local authority or the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Nurseries: Cost of Living

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of the cost of living crisis on nurseries.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the adequacy of the Government's energy support package for supporting childcare providers.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department is exploring ways to mitigate the impact of the rising cost of living on early years providers and the children in their care. We are in regular contact with local authorities to monitor their delivery of childcare and gauge the impact at local levels.The new government Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for all non-domestic customers including all UK businesses. Providers in all Department of Education sectors, including providers of childcare on non-domestic premises, are eligible for this scheme.The department will continue to work closely with the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy to monitor the impacts of this scheme and of energy costs on the early years and childcare sector.

Special Educational Needs: Transport

Helen Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of rises in the cost of fuel on the (a) provision and (b) cost of school transport for (i) children and (ii) young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in the current academic year.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department is offering support to help people with costs such as childcare, bills and transport. The government’s dedicated website provides more information about cost of living support. It is available at: https://helpforhouseholds.campaign.gov.uk/.Our home to school transport policy aims to ensure that no child is unable to access education because of a lack of transport. Local authorities must provide free home to school transport for children of compulsory school age who attend their nearest school and would not be able to walk there because of the distance or due to their special educational needs or disability. There are additional rights to free transport for low-income families aimed at helping them exercise school choice. Home to school travel and transport guidance is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-to-school-travel-and-transport-guidance.

Refugees: Ukraine

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate he has made of the number of Ukrainian pupils attending secondary school in (a) England, (b) the North West England region and (c) Southport constituency.

Kelly Tolhurst: The information requested is not held by the department. However, data is collected on the number of school place applications and offers made for children from outside of the UK, including children from Ukraine. More information can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-placements-for-children-from-outside-of-the-uk.Between 1 September 2021 and 26 July 2022, there were an estimated 7,000 applications in England for secondary school places for children from Ukraine. Of these 7,000 applications, 6,200 offers of secondary school places have been made. These figures are adjusted for non-response.In the North West, there were an estimated 500 applications for secondary school places for children from Ukraine, with 400 offers made. These figures have been adjusted for non-response.The data is not collected by constituency, however, for Sefton Council, there were 11 applications for secondary school places, with 11 offers made. These figures are as reported by the local authority.

Free School Meals

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to analysis by Child Poverty Action Group, published in June 2022, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the finding that 800,000 were children living in poverty who were not eligible for free school meals.

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of (a) the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for and (b) the potential merits of providing universal free school meals in advance of the start of the 2023-24 academic year.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department continues to monitor the rising cost of living and its impact on free school meals (FSM), whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue.The department believes it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, and those out of work or on the lowest incomes. We do not have any plans to extend universal provision, but we will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these are supporting those who most need them.In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM while these remain affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.Additionally, the government is providing over £200 million per year for the next three years to provide healthy food in the holidays via the department’s holiday activities and food programme, which provides breakfast clubs in thousands of schools. The department is as also delivering the School Fruit and Vegetable scheme, along with wider government schemes such as Healthy Start vouchers.

Children and Young People: Mental Capacity

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people under the age of (a) 16 and (b) 18 who have been subject to a Deprivation of Liberty Order in (i) England and (ii) Wales were placed in unregistered provision in each year between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many young people under the age of 18 years and who have been subject to a Deprivation of Liberty order in (a) England and (b) Wales have been placed in unregistered provision in each year from 2017-18 to 2021-22.

Kelly Tolhurst: The department does not collect information on the number or characteristics of children subject to a Deprivation of Liberty order.In July 2022, the President of the Family Division established a National Deprivation of Liberty court, which is to be supported by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory. This will improve the department’s understanding of the cases that are being heard by the court, and to understand more about what can be done to better meet the needs of the children involved.Where local authorities place children subject to a Deprivation of Liberty order in a setting that is not registered with Ofsted, they should follow the ‘Placements in unregistered children’s homes in England or unregistered care home services in Wales’ guidance issued by the President of the Family Division in November 2019, alongside its December 2020 addendum. The guidance is clear that an application to register the provision with Ofsted must be made within seven working days from the date of the Deprivation of Liberty order. The department supports this guidance and adherence to it.The latest information on the number of children looked after is available in the ‘Children looked after in England’ statistical release available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.

Ministry of Justice

Probate Service: Correspondence

John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when the Probate Office plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare of (a) 11 July and (b) 12 August 2022 on behalf of his constituent, Anthony Westacott.

Mike Freer: HMCTS apologises for the delay in responding and confirms they have now responded on 23 September 2022.

Redundant Churches

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of redundant churchyards that have been made the responsibility of the local authority in the each of the last three years.

Mike Freer: The Ministry of Justice does not hold the data requested.

Television Licences: Non-payment

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were sent to prison for non-payment of the TV licence in each of the last ten years.

Rachel Maclean: A person cannot receive a custodial sentence for non-payment of the TV licence fee as the maximum penalty is a fine.The number of people admitted to prison for failing to pay fines in respect of the non-payment of a TV licence in England and Wales in each of the last ten years can be viewed at the following link: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-07-15/37589.

Debt Collection: Standards

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department is taking steps to help raise standards in the debt enforcement sector.

Gareth Johnson: The Ministry of Justice supports the creation of the Enforcement Conduct Board (ECB) and believes that it has the potential to raise standards in the enforcement industry. It will provide independent oversight of debt enforcement firms and make a real difference by raising standards, improving effectiveness and helping to protect vulnerable people in debt.We remain committed to strengthening regulation of this sector and will undertake a review of the body within two years of its operation to see if any legislative changes are necessary.The ECB plans to launch its operations in England and Wales in November 2022.

Rape: Convictions

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) males and (b) females have been convicted of the offence of rape in England in each of the last three years.

Rachel Maclean: The Ministry of Justice publishes these figures on an annual basis available on the GOV.UK website. These figures were most recently updated May 2022, in the prosecutions and convictions worksheet in the Outcomes by Offence data tool (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 21 MB) as part of the Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly: December 2021 publication.

Treasury

Debts: Pakistan

Chris Law: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with his international counterparts on the potential merits of (a) suspending, (b) restructuring and (c) cancelling some of Pakistan’s external debt in the context of the recent flooding in that country.

Chris Philp: The Government expresses deep concern and condolences for the severe humanitarian and economic impact of flooding in Pakistan. The UK recently announced an uplift in Pakistan flood relief funding, taking the total amount pledged to £16.5m. In addition, at COP26, the UK announced more than £55m of support to help Pakistan tackle climate change. The Government regularly engages on debt issues with our international partners in a number of fora. The UK acts in concert with its partners in the Paris Club on international debt issues and we stand ready to consider any request through the Paris Club or Common Framework process.

Debts: Climate Change

Chris Law: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward legislation to protect (a) Pakistan and (b) other countries affected by climate disasters from being sued in English courts for outstanding debts.

Chris Philp: The Government expresses deep concern and condolences for the severe humanitarian and economic impact of flooding in Pakistan. When countries request a debt treatment, the UK is committed to ensuring the private sector participates fully by providing debt relief on comparable terms to that of official bilateral creditors, such as the UK. The Government does not currently intend to pursue a legislative approach that would force private lenders to participate in debt relief initiatives. Any legislative approach would need to address a number of challenges. For example, legislating may increase the cost – or reduce the availability - of finance for low-income countries.

Members: Correspondence

Alan Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member from Kilmarnock and Loudoun of 25 June 2022 on help to buy ISAs, reference ZA15894.

Andrew Griffith: Treasury officials contacted the Honourable Member's office requesting a copy by email. This was received on 21 September and I replied on the same day apologising for any delay.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Energy: Prices

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what progress she made with her G7 counterparts following the summit in Bavaria, Germany on tackling the global increases in energy prices.

Vicky Ford: We are working closely with our G7 and other likeminded partners to support global energy security and stabilise economic recovery. For example, on 2 September, G7 Finance Ministers announced their intention to introduce an oil price cap mechanism related to Russian oil. The cap consists of a ban on services related to the maritime transport of Russian oil products sold above a collectively-agreed price cap, with an exception for those sold below the cap. It aims to reduce Russian energy revenues while avoiding a spike in global prices. On 8 September, the UK announced an 'Energy Price Guarantee' and a new Energy Supply Taskforce which will negotiate with domestic and international suppliers to agree long-term contracts that reduce the price they charge for energy and increase the security of its supply to help tackle rising energy prices. Other members of the G7 are exploring similar domestic packages.

Development Aid: Climate Change

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assistance her Department is providing to help tackle climate change in (a) India, (b) Sri Lanka, (c) Nepal and (d) Afghanistan; and if she will make a statement.

Vicky Ford: The UK is fully committed to supporting all countries tackle the impacts of climate change.We are partnering with India on its low carbon transition and on climate adaptation, accelerating investment in clean and resilient infrastructure, and mobilising regional and global climate action. For example, the Infrastructure for Climate Resilient Growth programme integrates climate risk and adaptation into social protection and has supported 1.4 million people so far to cope with the effects of climate change.The UK's £500 million Blue Planet Fund supports countries, including Sri Lanka and India, to protect the marine environment and tackle climate issues.The UK has committed over £350 million of climate support to Nepal in the past 5 years. The Climate Smart Development programme has improved the resilience of 700,000 poor and vulnerable people to floods, landslides, and droughts.In Afghanistan, we have been supporting communities impacted by extreme climatic events through emergency humanitarian support through NGO and UN Partners.At COP26, the UK launched Climate Action for a Resilient Asia (CARA) a 7-year, regional Indo-Pacific programme designed to strengthen climate resilience. The programme aims to mobilise climate finance, strengthen water security, conserve ecosystems and biodiversity, and help vulnerable communities lead local adaptation efforts, with up to £274 million spend. CARA will support countries across the Indo-Pacific, including India, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

Somaliland: English Language

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will take diplomatic steps to help support the use of the English language in its role as an official language of Somaliland.

Gillian Keegan: The UK is a leading partner of Somaliland, supporting its human and social development through education. While our education projects in Somaliland focus on improving learning outcomes, including literacy, we prioritise ensuring children have a strong foundation in their first language before learning a second language. Our projects in Somaliland include the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). GPE has supported the distribution of over 40,000 textbooks and is supporting the training of 215 teachers in Somaliland.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Wendy Chamberlain: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the press release entitled UK to donate 100 million coronavirus vaccine doses, published on 11 June 2021, how many and what proportion of those vaccines have been donated as of 20 September 2022.

Vicky Ford: The UK made available 100 million doses and donated 85 million doses to over 42 countries by the June 2022 target date. Of these, approximately 76.5 million have been delivered to COVAX, and 9.1 million have been delivered bilaterally. Global vaccine supply now far outstrips demand, so our focus has switched to helping low-income countries reach their national vaccination targets with the vaccines they have available through the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership.

Vicky Bowman

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking with the international community to help ensure the release of Vicky Bowman, the UK's former ambassador to Myanmar, and her husband.

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions the Government has had with its counterparts in the Myanmar Government on the arrest of Vicky Bowman, the UK's former ambassador to Myanmar, and her husband.

Jesse Norman: We are supporting Ms Bowman through our consular channels. Officials at the British Embassy in Yangon have been in contact with the local authorities to maintain consular access and to check on her welfare. We are monitoring Ms Bowman's situation closely and will continue to support her, and her family, until the case is resolved.

Ministry of Defence

Reserve Forces: Blackpool

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to provide additional investment into the facilities at the Blackpool Reserve Centre.

Alec Shelbrooke: Blackpool Army Reserve Centre is a relatively modern and well used facility. At this stage there is no assessed requirement for any major refurbishment or investment.

Ministry of Defence: India

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department were based permanently in (a) Gujarat, (b) Delhi and (c) other states in India in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Sarah Atherton: The table below details the Military and Civilian staff working in India for the last five years. All MOD Civilian staff working in India are based in New Delhi. The exact geographical location of Military officials working in India is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Fiscal year2017-20182018-20192019-20202020-20212021-2022Civilian FTE total~~~~~Military FTE total5050404040 - Figures reported in fiscal year 01 April to 31 March.- Rounded figures are to the nearest five, with numbers below five replaced by the tilde symbol (‘~’) and zeros replaced by full stops (‘.’). All figures have been rounded to the nearest 10, numbers ending in 5 have been rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to avoid systematic bias.

Defence: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department places contractual obligations on prime contractors to meet social value investments; and what proportion of supply chain contracts are awarded by his Department to SMEs as of 1 September 2022.

Alec Shelbrooke: The Ministry of Defence places contractual obligations on suppliers to meet social value commitments based on the supplier's social value proposal. Progress against the obligations is monitored and measured through the life of the contract using appropriate reporting metrics and Key Performance Indicators.During financial year 2020-21, the last year for which figures are available, 23% of our procurement spend went direct and indirectly to Small Medium Enterprises.

Defence: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department will publish a league table of the proportion of SMEs in the supply chains for MOD contracts.

Alec Shelbrooke: The Ministry of Defence (MOD) along with all Government Departments publishes its spend with Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) on an annual basis. For financial year 2020-21, the last year for which figures are available, 23% of the Department's procurement spend went directly and indirectly to SMEs.The MOD is committed to improving engagement with SMEs, and to support this, published for the first time in 2022, a dashboard of data relating to its engagement with SMEs which will be updated on an annual basis.The dashboard can be accessed on Gov.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-spend-with-small-and-medium-sized-enterprises-2020-to-2021

Guided Weapons: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) original cost expectations and (b) cost expectations as at 16 September 2022 were for the Spearcap 3 programme.

Alec Shelbrooke: SPEAR Capability 3 was originally assessed at £1.554 billion and remains within the programme risk tolerance levels.

Armed Forces: Paternity Leave

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether paternity leave is available for male members of the Armed Forces if his spouse is (a) a serving member of the Armed Forces and (b) a civilian.

Sarah Atherton: The Ministry of Defence's policy on paternity leave is set out in Joint Service Publication (JSP) 760, Chapter 26: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/775654/JSP_760_Part_1_Issue_37_Jan_2019.pdfService personnel are not entitled under law to statutory paternity leave, however, provision for paternity leave equating to the statutory arrangements is made by the Armed Forces Occupational Paternity Leave Scheme (AFOPLS). The occupation of a Service person's spouse has no bearing on eligibility for AFOPLS and the scheme is available to personnel irrespective of whether their spouse or partner is either serving in the Armed Forces or a civilian.

Department for Work and Pensions

Welfare State: Wales

Liz Saville Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of the devolution of welfare powers to Wales to permit the Welsh Government to provide additional support for households amid the cost of living crisis.

Alex Burghart: The Wales Act 2017 sets a reserved powers model, making clear that social security, pensions and child maintenance remain reserved to UK Parliament. This position is unchanged since devolution began. The UK Government does not intend to devolve reserved social security powers to the Welsh Government. It has, however, used them to make provision for the £650 Cost of Living Payment (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) for around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits; the one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 currently being paid to 6 million eligible people; and the extra one-off £300 Winter Fuel Payment this year to be paid to over 8 million pensioner households across the UK. The UK Government has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills through the new “Energy Price Guarantee”, which will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October. This will save the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme and the cost of living payments. It also includes an additional £500 million from October to help households across the UK with the cost of essentials. In England, £421 million is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund, a discretionary scheme run by Upper Tier Local Authorities, from October 2022 – March 2023. The Welsh Government has been allocated its share of this funding through the Barnett Formula.

Access to Work Programme: Standards

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the delays customers are experiencing to the Access to Work Scheme; and what further measures her Department are putting in place to address these delays.

Alex Burghart: Access to Work (AtW) are currently receiving an increased level of applications for support and are working through all applications to ensure that they are progressed as soon as possible, as well as recruiting new team members to increase capacity. For applications where a customer is due to begin a new job in the next 4 weeks (whether employed or self-employed), their case will be prioritised, and contact made as soon as possible. Renewal applications for on-going support are also being prioritised and in the majority of cases, support approved using a new streamlined process. All other Case Managers are deployed to work on the oldest outstanding cases and overtime working for AtW staff is also being used.

Carers: Employment

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to provide further resources to carers to help (a) remain in or (b) return to work.

Alex Burghart: The Government recognises the important contribution of unpaid carers and the considerable challenges they can face in balancing work with their caring responsibilities.Unpaid carers can access a range of support in Jobcentres to help them find employment.The Government has consulted on proposals for a new entitlement to carer’s leave. The Government response to the consultation committed to introducing carer’s leave as a day 1 right. We are aware of Wendy Chamberlain MP’s Private Member’s Bill on Carer’s Leave and are looking closely at whether we can support this at Second Reading. That Bill would introduce carer’s leave for all employees who are providing care for a dependant with a long-term care need. Eligible employees will be entitled to one week of unpaid leave per year, which will be available to take including flexibly in individual or half days. The Adult Social Care Reform White Paper: People at the Heart of Care, sets out a new strategic approach to empower unpaid carers including identifying, recognising and involving unpaid carers; supporting the economic and social participation of unpaid carers and working with sector to kick start a change in the services provided to support unpaid carers. Local authorities are required to undertake a Carer’s Assessment for any carer who has a need for support. This is an opportunity to record the impact caring has on a carer, including whether they are willing or able to continue caring. If a carer is assessed as having needs that are eligible for support, then the local authority has a legal duty to meet these needs on request from the carer and to draw up a support plan with the carer setting out how these needs will be met.

Personal Independence Payment: Telephone Services

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she has taken to ensure the accuracy of phone-based assessments for Personal Independence Payments claimants.

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has made a comparative assessment of the levels of accuracy between Personal Independence Payment assessments that are made (a) over the phone and (b) face to face.

Alex Burghart: The department is absolutely committed to ensuring claimants receive high quality, objective and accurate assessments, as part of the suite of evidence the department uses to decide entitlement. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, DWP worked at pace with its providers to deliver telephone and video assessments, changing from face-to-face assessments with minimum delay to the service for claimants. In line with feedback from our Health and Disability Green Paper consultation (2021), we continue to offer telephone and video assessments, alongside face-to-face and paper-based assessments. The development of the future health assessment strategy will be supported by a programme of in-house analysis, and externally commissioned research into the outcomes and experiences of the multi-channel approach. Assessment providers work continuously to drive improvements in assessment services, and the department ensures a high standard is maintained across all types of assessment. An Independent Audit function continually monitors performance and provides feedback to the assessment providers. Claimants also have the option to request an audio recording of their Personal Independence Payment telephone assessment, which can improve trust in the process.

Farms: Safety

Stuart C McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many inspections were conducted by the Health and Safety Executive on farms in each of the past five annual reporting periods.

Stuart C McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps the Health and Safety Executive has taken to help reduce the fatality rate in agriculture.

Alex Burghart: The fatality rate in agriculture is a concern to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which has a long-term strategy to drive industry ownership of the challenge and influence behaviour. Since 2018, HSE has run an annual programme of delivering training to farmers in advance of targeted proactive inspection. This sits alongside specific interventions on the management of cattle and, during 2022/23, the management of electrocution risk from overhead power lines. HSE continues engagement activity with a full range of stakeholders through the Farm Safety Partnerships. The latest activity includes work on child safety, management of cattle in fields with public rights of way, farm transport and the safe use of quad bikes. HSE also regularly holds formal consultations with the industry about its initiatives through the Agriculture Industry Advisory Committee. HSE publishes an annual report detailing the main causes of fatal incidents in agriculture, forestry and fishing in Great Britain. The report covering the period of 2021/22 is available via HSE’s website. The table below shows the number of agricultural inspections* conducted by HSE in each of the last five annual reporting periods (figures available from HSE systems as yearly figures): Year**  201720182019202020212022 (inspections ongoing)Number of inspections  572772706229398179*Figures have been provided for agriculture inspections. The number may include a small number of non-farm premises.**HSE systems able to generate figures for each calendar year e.g., 2018 rather than work year e.g., 2017/18.

State Retirement Pensions: British Nationals Abroad

Zarah Sultana: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the impact of the freeze on the state pensions of people living abroad on levels of poverty amongst those people.

Alex Burghart: DWP does not make such an assessment. The UK State Pension is payable worldwide to those who meet the qualifying conditions. Entitlement is based on an individual’s National Insurance record. The policy on up-rating UK State Pensions overseas is long-standing and has been supported by successive post-war Governments for over 70 years. We continue to up-rate UK State Pensions abroad where there is a legal requirement to do so – for example where there is a reciprocal agreement that provides for up-rating. There are no plans to change this policy. This Government continues to take the view that priority should be given to those living in the UK when drawing up expenditure plans for pensioner benefits.

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s provisional views for the second stage of its investigation into changes to women’s State Pension age.

Alex Burghart: The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman’s (PHSO) investigation into communication of changes to women’s state pensions is ongoing and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private’’. We are cooperating fully with the PHSO in their investigation and will continue to do so.

Social Security Benefits: Telephone Services

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department's waiting time targets are for answering calls to the helpline for benefits claimants; and what the average waiting time was in each of the last 52 weeks.

Victoria Prentis: Waiting time targets: DWP reviews forecasted telephony demand and plans resourcing accordingly to keep wait times down, wait time performance is frequently reviewed, and where DWP’s telephony is delivered by an outsourced provider we use the Key Performance Indicator of percentage of calls answered. All DWP customer telephone lines are Freephone numbers. Average waiting time/Average Speed of Answer (ASA) The ASA for all service lines in Retirement Services, Universal Credit, Child Maintenance Group, Disability Services and Working Age for each of the last Fifty-Two weeks was as follows: Week CommencingRetirement ProvisionUniversal CreditCMGDisabilityWorking Age06/09/202100:12:0600:08:1500:20:5200:18:5500:16:4713/09/202100:10:1200:12:3000:22:1500:17:5800:15:0320/09/202100:09:0200:15:4800:18:1300:18:3400:11:0827/09/202100:10:3400:13:0900:22:3800:19:0800:10:0604/10/202100:10:2400:07:3400:19:0700:21:0400:11:4511/10/202100:10:1400:03:1700:18:5500:22:1700:11:0118/10/202100:09:4900:03:4200:19:0500:19:5600:14:0225/10/202100:10:5400:03:4500:20:3000:18:3700:17:0901/11/202100:09:3100:03:0000:21:0500:19:1900:13:5908/11/202100:09:2200:03:3800:17:1000:17:2900:13:4615/11/202100:09:1300:02:3000:13:4300:16:5700:14:4522/11/202100:08:2100:03:0800:14:4200:17:2600:18:1929/11/202100:08:2200:03:4100:19:0000:17:0700:24:0706/12/202100:08:2700:02:0900:14:3700:18:1800:22:5213/12/202100:06:2900:01:5000:10:0000:15:1000:11:4620/12/202100:04:5500:00:2200:15:4000:12:1800:07:1327/12/202100:09:2000:01:0500:23:5900:20:5000:18:0403/01/202200:09:5300:01:1200:18:2300:16:4500:11:2010/01/202200:09:3500:00:2400:14:3000:17:1200:08:1317/01/202200:10:4000:00:2100:15:2200:13:3300:08:2224/01/202200:10:3200:00:1800:17:0100:14:5600:09:2331/01/202200:10:0100:00:5300:14:5700:13:4800:11:4907/02/202200:09:2900:02:5700:13:0500:15:4100:12:3014/02/202200:09:2900:01:0800:14:1000:16:2400:17:0521/02/202200:09:4200:01:1600:15:0000:18:4400:17:2028/02/202200:08:4400:02:2600:18:2000:15:4400:20:0507/03/202200:07:4400:01:3600:14:4700:16:3500:19:0214/03/202200:06:0400:02:0000:12:5500:17:5500:21:4121/03/202200:06:5900:02:2400:12:5000:15:3700:20:5028/03/202200:09:0300:02:1800:13:1300:16:4600:16:1304/04/202200:07:5900:04:1000:12:4300:18:0300:10:5411/04/202200:06:3500:02:5700:09:3800:18:0600:14:4118/04/202200:08:0400:03:4800:15:5300:16:4500:19:2625/04/202200:07:0300:02:3100:13:2400:16:3500:16:2102/05/202200:09:2600:04:1200:14:3500:18:2700:18:1709/05/202200:08:0900:02:5600:14:2000:14:3200:19:2716/05/202200:07:1200:04:4100:17:5200:18:0700:16:2823/05/202200:06:5800:02:5600:23:5600:14:1600:13:2330/05/202200:06:5400:07:3700:30:4500:13:2200:15:5406/06/202200:08:2600:04:1500:29:1700:19:2300:15:4913/06/202200:08:3800:03:2100:29:4600:16:3500:07:1020/06/202200:06:1200:03:2600:32:1300:14:2000:09:1127/06/202200:06:1500:03:3500:23:2200:16:4800:10:0804/07/202200:06:0700:03:2400:19:2700:17:3200:11:3211/07/202200:06:4100:04:0900:18:1700:18:2000:14:4218/07/202200:06:1400:02:0600:14:0800:16:2100:12:0225/07/202200:06:4400:01:3500:15:3000:16:0100:13:2801/08/202200:08:4900:02:4800:14:5900:17:0900:16:4608/08/202200:08:3000:02:4800:17:1100:16:4800:14:3915/08/202200:08:1400:04:5500:16:5900:18:0500:16:1022/08/202200:07:0100:04:2200:15:1600:18:4300:16:2529/08/202200:07:4400:03:5200:17:2100:19:1300:19:54hh:mm:ss Average Speed of Answer measures the average customer wait time from the point of entering a queue to connection to an agent. This excludes any time spent in pre-queue messaging and any wait time for calls ultimately abandoned by callers. Please note this information is derived from the Department’s management information designed solely for the purpose of helping the Department to manage its business. As such, it has not been subjected to the rigorous quality assurance checks applied to our published official statistics. As DWP holds the information internally, we have released it. However, it is possible information held by DWP may change due to operational reasons and we recommend that caution be applied when using it.

Universal Credit: Equality

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department has assessed the equalities impacts of the planned rise in the Administration Earnings Threshold for Universal Credit.

Victoria Prentis: An Equality Analysis has been undertaken on the amendments to the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 to raise the Administrative Earnings Threshold.

Universal Credit

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish a regional breakdown of the number of people on Universal Credit who will be moved to the Intensive Work Search programme as a result of forthcoming changes to the Administration Earnings Threshold for Universal Credit.

Victoria Prentis: DWP’s forecasts indicate that there is not a significant geographical variation in the number of claimants that will move into the Intensive Work Search Regime as a result of the forthcoming changes to the Administrative Earnings Threshold for Universal Credit

Universal Credit

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what financial savings her Department expects to make following the managed migration to Universal Credit in 2023-2024.

Victoria Prentis: In financial year 23/24 we estimate that Universal Credit will deliver net operational savings of around £300m, when compared to the cost of processing the same customers in the legacy systems it replaces.

Jobcentres

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish (a) a list of all (i) permanent and (ii) temporary jobcentres and (b) details of when all existing temporary job centres will be closed.

Victoria Prentis: Lists of both established and temporary Jobcentres are published on gov.uk – established Jobcentres, temporary Jobcentres. At this stage we are we are not able to provide details of when each of the temporary Jobcentres will close.

Jobcentres

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department is making preparations to increase the capacity of the Jobcentre network in the context of forecasts that unemployment will rise in the months ahead.

Victoria Prentis: The Department regularly updates its resource forecasts to reflect the latest economic assumptions. In addition, ongoing monitoring of actual data ensures resourcing decisions and estates requirements are made using the best available information

Discretionary Housing Payments

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much of the Discretionary Housing Payment budget for 2022/23 has been spent.

Victoria Prentis: Local authorities (LAs) administer the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) scheme. The latest DHP expenditure data held by DWP covers Quarter 1 (Q1) of financial year 2022-23 and is taken from voluntary expenditure returns from 253 out of 331, or 76%, of LAs in England and Wales. This data indicates that those LAs who provided a return have spent 27% of their overall DHP budget in the first quarter of 2022-23.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an estimate of the number of claimants who did not receive a Cost of Living payment in July 2022 following application of sanctions to their Universal Credit.

Victoria Prentis: Between the 14 and 20 July, the department processed over 7.2m cost of living payments worth around £2.4 billion. In total, over eight million families will be eligible for this payment, with around one million eligible because they receive tax credits and no other eligible benefits. These families will receive their first instalment from HMRC in the autumn, and the second instalment in the winter. Further information is available at: 7.2 million Cost of Living payments made to low-income families - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and at: Cost of Living Payment - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) Universal Credit households can receive a nil award for various reasons. The majority of nil awards are due to household earnings. Other reasons that can cause or contribute to a nil award include capital, other income, other benefits, sanctions and fraud penalties. 12,200 households containing 12,400 UC claimants had a nil Universal Credit award with an amount deducted for a sanction in the qualifying assessment period, that did not receive the cost-of-living payment. Of these households, there were 6,600 households containing 6,600 claimants where the sanction was the only reason for the nil award. In the remaining households the nil award was due to a combination of the sanction and other reasons. Notes:1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100.2. Great Britain level figures have been provided.3. Nil awards have been defined as households that received a £0 Universal Credit payment and had no deductions for advance repayments, third party debts or government debts and had no money paid directly to their landlord by Universal Credit.4. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.5. The methodology used is different to the methodology used to derive the Official Statistics Household series and therefore, figures may not be comparable.6. The methodology and data source may be slightly different to those used to derive entitlement to the Cost-of-Living Payment.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, under what contractual terms her Department can seek financial compensation from assessment providers.

Victoria Prentis: Details of the value of any financial compensation sought from assessment providers is commercially sensitive. Provider performance is measured across a range of service level agreements, setting out the department's expectations for service delivery. These include quality, performance delivery targets and customer experience. Contractual remedies are in place if the provider fails to deliver against the agreed service standards. Service credits are applied, where appropriate, in order to recover estimated financial loss to the department. These performance regimes are published within the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment provider contracts, available on Contracts Finder - GOV.UK.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, if she will publish the comprehensive performance regime followed by assessment providers.

Victoria Prentis: Details of the value of any financial compensation sought from assessment providers is commercially sensitive. Provider performance is measured across a range of service level agreements, setting out the department's expectations for service delivery. These include quality, performance delivery targets and customer experience. Contractual remedies are in place if the provider fails to deliver against the agreed service standards. Service credits are applied, where appropriate, in order to recover estimated financial loss to the department. These performance regimes are published within the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment provider contracts, available on Contracts Finder - GOV.UK.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many decisions were made about Universal Credit sanctions at (a) Original Decision, (b) Mandatory Reconsideration and (c) Appeal stage; and what were the outcomes of those decisions for each month in the last five years.

Victoria Prentis: Monthly sanction decisions for Universal Credit (Live Service) recipients by decision type from August 2015 to July 2020 are published on Stat-Xplore here:https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/Guidance for users is available at:https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html Monthly sanction decisions for Universal Credit (Full Service) recipients from May 2016 to April 2022 are published in Table 1.1 here:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/benefit-sanctions-statistics-to-april-2022-experimental The information requested on the stage a Universal Credit (Full Service) sanction decision is made is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Employment: Hearing Impairment

Matt Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the (a) potential return on investment in terms of employment prospects for deaf people who receive auditory verbal therapy as children, (b) long-term employment outcomes for deaf children who have taken part in that therapy and (c) potential return on investment in terms of employment prospects of embedding 300 trained practitioners in that therapy, as recommended by Auditory Verbal UK.

Victoria Prentis: DWP doesn’t deliver or fund this intervention and does not plan to make an assessment of the auditory verbal therapy impacts, and future employment outcomes. However, we do have a programme of evaluations for DWP led and funded interventions and also review evidence produced externally to learn what works.

Household Support Fund

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of increasing emergency relief funding through the Housing Support Fund for local authorities ahead of winter 2022.

Victoria Prentis: £842m has already been allocated to Local Authorities in England through the Household Support Fund to support those in need for the period October 2021- September 2022. Almost 9 million awards were given to those in need between October 2021 and March 2022 alone. A further £421m is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund from October 2022 to March 2023, taking the total funding for this support to over £1.2bn. The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills ahead of Winter 2022. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

Food Banks: Food Supply

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the number of foodbanks which (a) do not have enough food to meet demand as on 12 September 2022 and (b) will run out of food in the next three months.

Victoria Prentis: The Government is concerned by the data limitations in this area, and thus from April 2021 we introduced a set of questions into the Family Resources Survey (FRS) to measure and track food bank usage. The first results of these questions are due to be published in March 2023 subject to usual quality assurance. These questions will not tell us how much food is in food banks but will allow us to gauge where people in food security are seeking help and over time will allow is to build a time series on the scale of food bank usage. Government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living. That is why we are introducing the new “Energy Price Guarantee.” This will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to over £37bn of Cost of living support announced earlier this year. Included within this £37bn is an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m, running from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023. We will publish new guidance for Local Authorities for this latest extension shortly. The Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.

Personal Independence Payment

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the average back payment due to new Personal Independence Payment claimants at the point the social security benefit was awarded in the last 12 months.

Victoria Prentis: The information requested is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Personal Independence Payment: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to revise the assessment process for Personal Independence Payment to make it more accessible for those who live with ME or CFS by ensuring assessors are specially trained to understand the condition.

Victoria Prentis: Assessment providers are required to ensure that all health professionals (HPs) carrying out Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessments have training and knowledge of the clinical aspects and overall functional effects of a wide range of health conditions and impairments. The department does not believe that it is necessary for the provider to deploy HPs who are specialists in the specific conditions or impairments of the individuals they are assessing. Instead, the focus is on ensuring that HPs are experts in disability analysis, emphasising on the effects of health conditions and impairments on the claimant's daily life. HPs can access a wide range of clinical resources to research any conditions presented. This includes evidence-based protocols, e-learning modules or case studies, as well as keeping knowledge up to date through Continuous Professional Development (CPD). Both PIP providers have a condition insight report on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME)/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and CPD modules for their HPs on the condition. Claimants with ME/CFS are able to access PIP in the same way as other people with long-term health conditions or disabilities. DWP is committed to improving our services and works continuously with providers to improve the assessment process. The Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper, explored how the welfare system can better meet the needs of claimants now and in the future, by improving claimant experience of our services, enabling independent living, and improving employment outcomes. We are considering all the responses to the Green Paper proposals and are considering what future policy changes might look like. These will be set out in the White Paper later this year.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, how much financial compensation her Department sought from assessment providers each year from 2010 to 2022; and for what reasons that compensation was sought.

Victoria Prentis: Details of the value of any financial compensation sought from assessment providers is commercially sensitive. Provider performance is measured across a range of service level agreements, setting out the department's expectations for service delivery. These include quality, performance delivery targets and customer experience. Contractual remedies are in place if the provider fails to deliver against the agreed service standards. Service credits are applied, where appropriate, in order to recover estimated financial loss to the department. These performance regimes are published within the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment provider contracts, available on Contracts Finder - GOV.UK.

Universal Credit: Disqualification

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish available data on the number of Universal Credit claimants who received nil payments as a result of a sanction having reduced their payment to £0 for each month of 2022 to date.

Victoria Prentis: The information requested on the number of UC claimants who receive nil payment as a result of having their Standard Allowance reduced by a sanction is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

Social Security Benefits and State Retirement Pensions: Uprating

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will uprate all benefit and state pension rates by at least the September 2022 rate of CPI inflation for the 2023-24 financial year.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the recommendations of the Work and Pensions Select Committee in its report entitled The cost of living, published in July 2022, whether her Department has taken steps to increase the speed with which changes can be made to legacy benefit and state pension rates.

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the recommendations of the Work and Pensions Select Committee in its report entitled The cost of living, published in July 2022, whether her Department has taken steps to reduce the length of time between the inflation reference period for benefit uprating and the uprating implementation date.

Victoria Prentis: The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is required by law to undertake an annual review of State pensions and benefits. The outcome of that review will be announced later this year, and the new rates will enter into force from 10 April 2023.The Government will respond to the report of the Work and Pensions Committee in due course.

Disability: Children

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the research by Sense entitled Complex disabilities in the UK which found that 318,000 children have complex disabilities, if her Department will take steps to help ensure that those children are supported financially in the context of rises in the cost of living.

Victoria Prentis: Children and young adults with a long-term health condition or disability can be entitled to receive up to £156.90 a week, tax free, from Disability Living Allowance (DLA) or Personal Independence Payment (PIP). DLA and PIP are uprated annually in line with inflation. The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.The £37 billion Cost of Living package includes UK-wide support to help disabled people with the particular extra costs they are facing, with 6 million people who receive non-means-tested extra-costs disability benefits, including DLA and PIP, due to receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 before the beginning of October. Households with more than one disabled child will receive a Disability Cost of Living Payment for each eligible child. In addition, households where someone is in receipt of a means-tested benefit will be eligible for up to an additional £650 in Cost of Living Payments.

Personal Independence Payment

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce waiting times for new Personal Independence Payment claims.

Victoria Prentis: We are committed to ensuring people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner, taking into account the need to review all available evidence. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the Department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service, including using a blend of phone, video and face-to-face assessments, increasing case manager and assessment provider health professional resource and prioritising new claims, whilst safeguarding the continuity of existing awards to ensure they do not go out of payment. We are seeing an improvement in average clearance times and the latest statistics show that the end-to-end journey has steadily reduced from 26 weeks in August 2021 to 18 weeks at the end of August 2022.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that accessibility requirements are fully taken into account when making a decision on the most appropriate Personal Independence Payment assessment method.

Victoria Prentis: It is important that all our claimants can access our services and that they do not face obstacles in applying and communicating with the department and its providers. The feasibility of a paper-based assessment will always be considered in the first instance for all cases. Where this is not possible the claimant will be invited to a telephone, video or face-to-face assessment. Before an invite to assessment is sent, consideration will be given to claimants who need a specific assessment channel due to their health condition or circumstances. In addition, before attending a face-to-face or telephone consultation, claimants are given the opportunity to alert their assessment provider of any additional requirements they may have, and the providers will meet any such reasonable requests. Claimants identified as being vulnerable (e.g. having mental health or learning disabilities) can access additional support at any point in the claim or assessment process. An audit criteria was introduced from 1 July 22 for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which will ensure claimants are allocated to the most appropriate assessment channel for their needs and circumstances.

Energy and Food: Prices

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had recent discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential merits of providing funding to local authorities for the provision of (a) support and (b) infrastructure for (i) food and (ii) energy costs in winter 2022.

Victoria Prentis: The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The new “Energy Price Guarantee” will mean a typical UK household will now pay up to an average £2,500 a year on their energy bill for the next two years from 1 October, saving the average household in Great Britain at least £1,000 a year based on current energy prices from October. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost-of-living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. Included within this £37bn is an additional £500 million from October 2022 to help households with the cost of essentials, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion for the period October 2021- March 2023. In England, £421 million is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund, a discretionary scheme run by Upper Tier Local Authorities, from October 2022 to March 2023. The fund is principally intended to be used to support households with energy, food and water costs, although support with wider essentials can also be considered under the scope of the scheme. We know energy bills may be of particular concern to low-income households and so Local Authorities are being encouraged to focus on supporting households with the cost of energy. Guidance and individual local authority indicative allocations for this further extension to the Household Support Fund will be published in due course. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.

Personal Independence Payment: Medical Examinations

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, what contract management processes are in place for assessment providers.

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, how her Department monitors the performance of assessment providers.

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to her Answer of 21 June to Question 17850 on Personal Independence Payment: Tribunals, what steps her Department has taken to improve the performance of Personal Independence Payment assessments by assessment providers since 2015.

Victoria Prentis: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) manages the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) contracts robustly, and has a full set of service level agreements setting out our expectations for service delivery. We ensure a high standard is maintained, having an independent audit function that continually monitors performance, and provides feedback to assessment providers. Quality performance is also regularly reviewed through DWP and provider senior governance meetings at a national level, and in each of the provider areas.The contracts allow us to recover any financial loss caused by poor performance, and we have the right to terminate the contract if there is sustained underperformance.We are committed to continuously improving the assessment service and have reiterated this in the Shaping Future Support: The Health and Disability Green Paper. During the Green Paper consultation period, we explored ways in which we could improve the current system of assessments, including by: Introducing different ways to conduct assessments, such as introducing telephone and video assessmentsReducing unnecessary assessmentsImproving our decisions, for example, by making sure that evidence is available earlier in the decision-making processImproving support for people with serious health conditions, including people nearing the end of their lives. We are considering all the responses to the Green Paper proposals as we consider what future policy changes might look like, which we will set out in the White Paper later this year. The department’s Health Transformation Programme (HTP) will deliver improvements to the health and disability benefits system, including proposals that stem from the Green Paper. Our ambition is to make the assessment process simpler, more user-friendly, easier to navigate and more joined-up for claimants, whilst delivering better value for money for taxpayers. Providers also work continuously to drive improvements in assessment services. They have introduced new management processes to drive performance across their services, including new or enhanced systems of assessment report quality checks, to improve the quality of advice the department receives. In addition, PIP assessment reports have been redesigned to have clearer justifications which support improved benefit decision making.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's letter to the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee dated 15 July 2022, for what reason her Department was unable to assess the deterrent effect of benefit sanctions using the evaluation of benefit sanctions previously commissioned by her Department.

Victoria Prentis: We no longer plan to publish a report on the sanctions evaluation. This is because a sanction acts not only through its imposition on a claimant but importantly also through its effect as a deterrent. We were unable to assess the deterrent effect and therefore this research does not present a comprehensive picture of sanctions. The reason this analysis is unable to assess the deterrent effect is that all claimants in UC intensive regime are subject to mandatory conditions. Given this, it was not possible to assess the current system relative to a non-mandatory system.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of benefit sanctions on the behaviour of benefit claimants.

Victoria Prentis: The Department considers all available evidence when making decisions regarding new or existing policies. To ensure sanctions are clear, fair and effective in promoting positive behaviours, we keep the operation of conditionality and sanctions policies under continuous review. We routinely undertake Equality Analyses when developing policies. No recent assessment on the impact of benefit sanctions on the behaviour of benefit claimants has been made.

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Kate Osamor: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what work her Department has undertaken to evaluate the use of benefit sanctions.

Victoria Prentis: The Department considers all available evidence when making decisions regarding new or existing policies. Conditionality is a long established tool for supporting our claimants into work and we have strong, high-quality UK-specific evidence, gathered through the use of Randomised Control Trials, that conditionality is effective at supporting people into work. It is likely some of the effect might be attributable to the sanctions associated with conditionality, but we cannot be certain on this. We will continue to consider the impact our policies have on our claimants.

Maternity Pay

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the changes to the number of women claiming Statutory Maternity Pay returning to work within 39 weeks of giving birth in each of the last three years.

Victoria Prentis: No assessment has been made of the changes to the number of women claiming Statutory Maternity Pay returning to work within 39 weeks of giving birth in each of the last three years.

Cost of Living Payments: Housing Benefit

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to answer of 8 July 2022 to Question 26876 on Cost of Living Payments: Housing Benefit, what assessment he has been made of (a) how many people receiving housing benefit only are not receiving the £650 cost of living payment and (b) the sufficiency of the Household Support Fund to reach all those requiring additional support.

Victoria Prentis: (A) How many people receiving HB only are not receiving the £650 Cost Of Living payment Approximately 100 thousand working-age HB claimants were not in receipt of a qualifying benefit or Tax Credit and so would not receive a cost of living payment of £650 paid in two lump sums of £326 and £324. There are a further 370 thousand pensioner HB claimants who were also not in receipt of any qualifying benefit but will receive the £300 Cost of Living payment paid through an increase to the Winter Fuel Payment. (B) What assessment has been made of the sufficiency of the Household Support Fund to reach all those requiring additional support. £842m has already been allocated to Local Authorities in England through the Household Support Fund to support those in need for the period October 2021- September 2022. Almost 9 million awards were given to those in need between October 2021 and March 2022 alone. A further £421m is being provided to extend the Household Support Fund from October 2022 to March 2023, taking the total funding for this support to over £1.2bn. Local Authorities have the ties and local knowledge to best determine how this support should be provided to their local communities, and they have the discretion to design their own local schemes to best meet local need, within the parameters of the grant determination and guidance for the fund. The Household Support Fund is just one part of a wider package of government support for the cost of living now totalling over £37bn this year.

Universal Credit: Cost of Living Payments

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claimants were ineligible for the first cost of living payment as a result of having received two paychecks within the assessment period.

Victoria Prentis: It is not possible to identify how many households did not receive the Cost-of-Living payment because of the way their wages were paid during the qualifying month. A claimant may not be eligible to receive a Cost-of-Living payment if they have an increase earnings during the qualifying period. We are unable to distinguish whether this fluctuation is temporary or permanent. This fluctuation could be the result of a household receiving additional earnings due to being paid more frequently or another reason. There were 464,000 Universal Credit households where earnings reduced their Universal Credit award to £0 for the qualifying period. This was equivalent to 551,000 Universal Credit claimants.

Employment and Support Allowance

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 September 2022 to Question 45008 on Employment Support Allowance, where the information on the total value of compensation payments made following underpayment of Employment Support Allowance is held if not centrally.

Victoria Prentis: There is no requirement to record payments in respect of Employment and Support Allowance underpayment cases separately from other Special Payments. Straightforward, low value Special Payment decisions are completed at, and retained by, individual Service Centres. Complex or higher value payments are considered by the National Special Payment Team who would hold the decision record.

Universal Credit: Veterans

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2022 to Question 36699 on Universal Credit: Veterans, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as serving in the Armed Forces for the assessment periods ending in (a) April, 2022, (b) May 2022, (c) June 2022, (d) July 2022 and (e) August 2022.

Victoria Prentis: The requested information is not available for August. The latest available information is provided in the table below UC Claimants with an assessment period ending in month, by armed forces statusMonthProportion of claimants for whom a response is heldNumber of claimants recorded as currently serving in the Armed ForcesApril 202246%2,500May 202248%2,600June 202250%2,800July 202251%2,900 Notes:1. Percentage rounded to the nearest percent2. Number rounded to the nearest 1003. Figures can differ from previous numbers due to methodological changes and retrospective updates of armed forces status information and UC claims.4. Figures for GB only5. Held a response is defined as the claimant having answered one of the following options “previously served”, “currently serving”, “never served”, or “prefer not to say”6. Armed forces status is self-reported by the UC claimant7. Armed forces status is as at the end of the UC assessment period

Universal Credit: Veterans

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2022 to Question 36699 on Universal Credit: Veterans, how many Universal Credit claimants have been identified as previously serving in the Armed Forces for the assessment periods ending in (a) June, (b) July 2022 and (c) August 2022.

Victoria Prentis: The requested information is not available for August. The latest available information is provided in the table belowUC Claimants with an assessment period ending in month, by armed forces statusMonthProportion of claimants for whom a response is heldNumber of claimants recorded as having previously served in the Armed ForcesApril 202246%33,800May 202248%35,100June 202250%36,600July 202251%38,000 Notes: 1. Percentage rounded to the nearest percent2. Number rounded to the nearest 1003. Figures can differ from previous numbers due to methodological changes and retrospective updates of armed forces status information and UC claims.4. Figures for GB only5. Held a response is defined as the claimant having answered one of the following options “previously served”, “currently serving”, “never served”, or “prefer not to say”6. Armed forces status is self-reported by the UC claimant7. Armed forces status is as at the end of the UC assessment period

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Nature Conservation

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of supporting the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature and the G7 2030 Nature Compact; and what steps he is taking to prevent degradation of nature.

Trudy Harrison: The degradation of nature is a global problem that needs a global solution. Government recognises the merits of supporting international actions, alongside taking steps domestically to assess and address this crucial issue.The UK was pivotal in driving the Leader's Pledge for Nature in 2020 and remains fully committed to working towards global implementation of the important commitments contained in the Pledge. This week the UK contributed to a highly impactful Leader's Pledge for Nature event (co-hosted with the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People and the Global Ocean Alliance) in the margins of the UN General Assembly where countries came forward with ambitious commitments to finance biodiversity and move to nature positive economies.The UK led the drafting and agreement of the G7 2030 Nature Compact by Leaders during our G7 Presidency in 2021, and we are committed to the full implementation of all the commitments contained within it by 2030, including the headline target to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.Domestically, Government is committed to addressing the biggest environmental priorities of our age, including restoring and enhancing nature.We have set out clear goals for habitats and species in England in our 25 Year Environment Plan (25YEP). The 25YEP marked a step change in ambition for wildlife and the wider natural environment and we are already taking action to fulfil this ambition. We are maintaining and extending key protections; introducing new legislation and new funding streams; we are supporting partnerships and we are working across Government to secure broad action.Our world-leading Environment Act 2021 puts environmental ambition and accountability at the very heart of government, by establishing a comprehensive legal framework for environmental improvement. The act includes a range of specific measures and actions to directly tackle biodiversity loss and sets a new and ambitious domestic framework for environmental governance now we have left the European Union.Notably, the Act requires a new, legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This is in addition to setting at least one long-term legally binding target for biodiversity alongside targets on water, air quality and waste reduction.We will set out all of our long-term targets, and our approach to meeting them, in our revised Environmental Improvement Plan in January 2023. This plan will mean that progress can be monitored, and Government will be held accountable for actions to recover nature.The Environment Act also introduces measures that will strengthen our action for nature and lay the foundation for the Nature Recovery Network, a network of places that are richer in wildlife, more resilient to climate change and provide wider environmental benefits including carbon capture and recreation. Biodiversity Net Gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities will work together to drive action towards our targets for nature recovery, alongside wider action and investment to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife to recover and thrive, while conservation covenants will help secure habitat for the long term.

Nature Conservation

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to create more habitat for nature in the UK.

Trudy Harrison: The Environment Act 2021 requires a new legally binding target to be set to halt the decline in species abundance by 2030. This world leading target will drive wide-ranging actions to deliver nature recovery. We know that to meet it we will need large-scale habitat creation and restoration and that by improving connectivity we will maximise the benefits of newly created and restored habitat.The Environment Act introduced a number of policies that will support these outcomes. Biodiversity net gain, Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) and a strengthened biodiversity duty on public authorities will work together to drive action, including to create or restore habitats that enable wildlife to recover and thrive, while conservation covenants will help secure habitat for the long term. LNRSs will provide the spatial framework for the Nature Recovery Network, which will guide creation, restoration and connectivity of habitats and sites to create mosaics of wildlife-rich habitat; and incentivise private partnerships.The Environmental Stewardship and Countryside Stewardship schemes help land managers deliver environmental benefits on their land. This includes the creation of habitats for wildlife including birds, small mammals and pollinators. Agreement holders can choose from actions ranging from general habitat creation benefitting a variety of species, such as hedgerow or wildflower plot creation, or actions to target specific species, such as skylark plots.The Nature for Climate Fund provides £750 million for the creation, restoration and management of woodland and peatland habitats.  The Green Recovery Challenge Fund is estimated to deliver 0.6mha of habitat creation and restoration within & outside SSSIs.  We set a target to raise at least £500 million in private finance to support nature's recovery every year by 2027 in England, rising to more than £1 billion by 2030.  This includes investment in protected sites and other landscape-scale action through delivery of the Nature Recovery Network.

Water Supply

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help reduce leakages in the UK’s water infrastructure.

Trudy Harrison: Water companies are responsible for reducing leakages in their network. Ofwat has set companies a performance commitment to reduce leakage by 16% by 2025 and water companies committed to a 50% reduction by 2050.

Home Office

Refugees: Afghanistan

Stephen Farry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 September 2022 to Question 46210, when she expects Afghan refugees to begin arriving in the UK under Pathway 2 of the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme.

Tom Pursglove: We are pleased to announce that the UK has welcomed its first arrivals under ACRS Pathway 2 from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Abortion: Protest

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government’s position on buffer zones around abortion clinics has changed since the outcome of the Abortion Clinic Protest Review in 2018.

Jeremy Quin: The Government is clear that it is unacceptable that patients seeking healthcare advice or staff working in healthcare facilities should feel intimidated or harassed.Since the review in 2018, the Government has continued to keep the matter of abortion-related protests outside clinics under review. Having considered the evidence, the Government continues to believe that national buffer zones outside abortion clinics in England and Wales would be disproportionate.Existing laws enable the police and local authorities to deal with harmful protests and the Government expects the police and local authorities to use their powers appropriately.

Police: Recruitment

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made on recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers by 2023: and how many additional officers have been recruited in the city of York since January 2020 to date.

Jeremy Quin: As part of the Police Officer Uplift Programme, the Home Office publishes a quarterly update on the number of officers in England and Wales, broken down by Police Force Area. The latest data, covering the situation to 30 June 2022, are available here: Police Officer uplift statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).The latest release, published on 27 July 2022 for data up to June 2022, showed that we remain on track to deliver 20,000 additional officers. As at 30 June 2022, 13,790 additional officers have been recruited from funding for the Police Uplift Programme representing 69% of the 20,000 allocation.

Fire and Rescue Services: Strikes

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the 18 May 2022 White Paper on the Fire and Rescue Service, what assessment the Government has made of the potential impact of proposed legislative changes to British firefighter’s legal right to strike on (a) firefighter’s pay and conditions, (b) job satisfaction in the fire and rescue service and (c) job retention in the fire and rescue service.

Jeremy Quin: The White Paper and consultation, Reforming our Fire and Rescue Service, does not include proposals in relation to firefighters taking industrial action in England. It commits to working closely with the National Fire Chief’s Council to review and strengthen business continuity plans and requirements to keep the public safe in the event of strike action.The proposals in the White Paper seek to clarify the role of the firefighter, positively reform culture, talent management and diversity within fire and rescue services. It also commits to an independent review into the current pay negotiation process.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Shared Ownership: Rents

Marsha De Cordova: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to help (a) prevent, and (b) provide support for annual rent increases for shared ownership leaseholders, in the context of the cost of living crisis.

Lee Rowley: The Government is aware of the potential for large nominal-terms rent increases for Shared Ownership leaseholders in 2023-24. Shared Ownership rents are permitted to increase by a maximum of the Retail Price Index (RPI) plus 0.5% per year, using the RPI figure for a specified month. As RPI plus 0.5% is the permitted maximum Shared Ownership rents can increase by per year, social housing providers have the flexibility to set increases below this level. The Government strongly encourages social housing providers to make use of this flexibility, and we know that many are carefully considering their options in response to cost-of-living concerns.

Leasehold: Reform

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to help tackle ground rents that are linked to inflation.

Lee Rowley: The Government has already legislated via the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Act 2022 to protect future leaseholders and we are due to bring forward further leasehold reforms later in this Parliament.We understand the difficulties some existing leaseholders face with high and escalating ground rents. Unfair practices have no place in the housing market. This is why we asked the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate potential mis-selling of homes and unfair terms in the leasehold sector.The CMA have secured commitments benefiting over 20,000 leaseholders, including commitments to return doubling ground rent terms to original rates. These settlements will help to free thousands more leaseholders from unreasonable ground rent increases. The CMA continue to engage with a number of firms and we urge other developers to follow suit.

Social Security Benefits

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of (a) raising Local Housing Allowance so that it covers the cheapest third of rents and (b) removing the benefit cap on levels of homelessness in England.

Lee Rowley: The causes of homelessness are complex and driven by a range of factors. The Government has focused on housing welfare support in recent years including, in 2020, by increasing Local Housing Allowance by nearly £1 billion to provide 1.5 million claimants of Housing Benefit or the housing element of Universal Credit with around £600 more housing support in 2020 / 2021 than they would otherwise have received. The rates will continue to be reviewed annually by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.For those who require additional support, Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) are available. Since 2011, the Government has provided almost £1.5 billion in DHPs to local authorities to support people who need help with their housing costs.The adequacy and affordability of housing is a complex area; the benefit cap is applied to a relatively low proportion of households and seeks to restore fairness between those receiving out-of-work benefits and taxpayers in employment. There is a statutory duty to review the levels of the cap at least once in every five years and this will happen at the appropriate time.

Department for International Trade

Trade Agreements: Israel

Ms Anum Qaisar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether provisions will be in place within any free trade deal between the UK and Israel on ensuring that preferential treatment does not cover trade with illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Ms Anum Qaisar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether provisions will be in place within any free trade deal between the UK and Israel on ensuring explicit exclusion of preferential trading terms for (a) goods and services exports produced in or (b) investment in illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

James Duddridge: Under the current UK-Israel agreement, goods imported from illegal settlements are not entitled to the benefits from trade preferences. Palestinian goods imported from the Occupied Palestinian Territories benefit from the trade preferences in the bilateral agreement negotiated between the UK and the Palestinian Authority.The UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories as part of Israel, including illegal settlements.

Import Duties: USA

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to lift US tariffs on imports from the UK.

James Duddridge: We have been working closely with the US to reduce US tariffs on imports from the UK. This includes securing the removal of US section 232 tariffs on imports of UK steel and aluminium products, which were lifted on 1st June and which help a sector which supports 80,000 jobs across the UK. Last year we also resolved the long-running Large Civil Aircraft dispute, which included the removal of tariffs on other goods imposed by both sides, including on exports to the US of iconic UK goods such as cashmere and single-malt Scotch whisky.

Trade Agreements: Gulf Cooperation Council

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many officials in her Department are working on the trade negotiations with the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many officials in her Department are working on the trade negotiations with Israel.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many officials in her Department are working on trade negotiations with Mexico.

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many officials in her Department are working on trade negotiations with Canada.

Conor Burns: The Department for International Trade (DIT) operates a flexible resourcing model to maximise efficiency across our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. The Department is currently delivering seven FTA negotiations and the number of staff working on these at any point in time will change depending on the stage and scale of the deal. Staff also often work across multiple negotiations so it is not possible to quantify the number for each negotiation.As of August 2022, DIT had approximately 460 staff working in the Trade Negotiations Group. This figure does not include other staff in DIT who also contribute to trade negotiations.

Trade Agreements: Japan

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 18 May 2021 to Question 146 on Trade Agreements: Japan, whether she plans to correct her Department’s declaration of ministerial travel published on 7 May 2021 to reflect the cost to the public purse of her predecessor’s subsistence and expenses excluding travel when visiting Japan in October 2020.

James Duddridge: Ministerial transparency returns publish costs incurred specifically by departmental Ministers. This uses a different methodology than asked in the subsequent parliamentary questions, about the overall cost to the public purse. There were some ancillary costs incurred by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) overseas embassy team (billed separately), related to the costs incurred by the Department for International Trade (DIT). This included the cost of translation services. In the interests of transparency, the Department will update the DIT return with the subsequent ancillary FCDO costs.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Ms Anum Qaisar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the intended contents of the UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement include provisions for arms trade.

James Duddridge: No. Defence matters are outside the scope of all UK Free Trade Agreements (FTA). The Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and aims to operate one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. An FTA with Israel will not impact on export controls in relation to arms exports.

Trade Agreements: Australia and New Zealand

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential environmental impact of the trade agreements with (a) Australia and (b) New Zealand.

Conor Burns: The Government recognises the importance of assessing the environmental impacts of new free trade agreements (FTAs) and published the full environmental impacts of the Australia and New Zealand FTAs at signature alongside the negotiated treaty text. Our assessment covers a range of environmental impacts such as emissions (both production and transport), carbon leakage, deforestation and biodiversity. The published impact assessments can be accessed through the following links:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-australia-fta-impact-assessmenthttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-new-zealand-fta-impact-assessment

Urine Storage Bags: Import Duties

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, for what reasons her Department is reintroducing the six per cent import duty for urine drainage bags following the covid-19 duty suspension.

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will take steps to remove the duty on importing urine drainage bags by reclassifying them as medical or surgical instruments and apparatus.

James Duddridge: In 2021 the Government implemented temporary tariff suspensions on over 100 products to support the healthcare response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These suspensions are currently due to expire on 31 December 2022, after which the UK Global Tariff (UKGT) rate will apply. As with all policy, we welcome stakeholder feedback and monitor these suspensions closely. Businesses can submit feedback on specific tariff lines via the UKGT feedback form available at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tariffs-on-goods-imported-into-the-uk.

Trade Agreements: India

Ruth Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent progress she has made in the negotiations for a free trade agreement with the Government of India; and if she will make a statement.

Conor Burns: The UK and India concluded the fifth round of negotiations on 29 July. The former Secretary of State wrote to chairs of the International Trade Committee and International Agreements Committee on the 10th August with an update and the correspondence have been placed in the House libraries. Government updated on progress in a statement, which can be found here. Both sides have been in intensive negotiations over the summer with the aim of concluding the majority of talks later this year. We continue to make good progress delivering a comprehensive free trade agreement.

Racal Acoustics: Export Controls

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of Open Individual Export Licence (OIEL) applications are not concluded after 120 working days as of 20 July 2022; and what estimate she has made of when Racal Acoustics Limited will receive a response to its OIEL application.

James Duddridge: Of the Open Individual Export Licence (OIEL) applications completed between 1st January 2021 and 31st March 2022 - the latest date for which licensing statistics have been published - 73.5% of OIEL applications were concluded within 120 working days. All other applications will be concluded as quickly as possible.­Racal’s OIEL application has been concluded.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Ms Anum Qaisar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether her Department has sought advice from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on how a UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement could safeguard the UK's human rights commitments in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Ms Anum Qaisar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what advice her Department has received from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on how a UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement could impact human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

James Duddridge: The Department for International Trade and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office discuss the interlinkages between the UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement, and the wider UK-Israel foreign policy relationship on a regular basis. This joined-up approach has informed the published strategic approach to the UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement, including the Government's approach to these issues. The UK is a leading advocate for human rights around the world and we remain committed to the promotion of universal human rights.

Department for International Trade: India

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many full-time equivalent staff in her Department are based permanently in (a) Gujarat, (b) Delhi and (c) other states in India as on 7 September 2022; and if she will make a statement.

James Duddridge: As of 7 September, full-time equivalent staff based in a) Gujarat was 3, b) Delhi was 42, c) other states was 79 in India.

Trade Barriers: USA

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make it her policy to hold discussions with her US counterpart on reducing market barriers with the US.

Conor Burns: We have been working closely with the US to enhance market access for exporters in both countries, removing tariffs and other barriers to trade. We have this year agreed with the US to lift tariffs on UK steel and aluminium products, helping a sector that supports 80,000 jobs across the UK. We have also lifted the historic US ban on the export of British beef and lamb to the US. We continue close discussions with the US – through our UK-US Trade Dialogues this year, led by the Department for International Trade Secretary of State, where we agreed to produce a new Roadmap to strengthen our bilateral collaboration at federal level, and through our memoranda of understanding with individual states.

Dolphins and Whales: Faroe Islands

Feryal Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the debate on Dolphin and Whale Hunting: Faroe Islands on 11 July 2022, what diplomatic steps her Department has taken since July 2022 to encourage the Faroese Government to stop the practice of dolphin and whale hunting; and if she will make a statement.

James Duddridge: The government is strongly opposed to the hunting of whales and dolphins. My colleagues and I will continue to raise this issue with the Faroe Islands, and we will raise it when the Joint Committee of our agreement meets in November. Our Trade agreement strengthens our ability to have these discussions and influence crucial issues like animal welfare. We continue to use our diplomatic relationship to lobby the Faroes to stop this practice altogether. His Majesty’s Ambassador to Copenhagen is due to visit the Faroes Islands in the near future and this will be a key topic of her visit.

Trade Agreements

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether her Department has a target for 80 per cent of the UK's trade to be covered by Free Trade Agreements by the end of 2022.

James Duddridge: The UK Government has secured trade agreements with 71 countries plus the EU. These partners accounted for 63% (£808bn) of UK bilateral trade in 2021. This includes agreements with Australia and New Zealand as well as the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which goes beyond continuity. The Department for International Trade’s comprehensive Free Trade Agreement programme continues at unprecedented pace, with trade negotiations currently live with seven markets – India, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), India and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Canada, Mexico, Israel and Greenland.

Trade Agreements: Israel

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what progress her Department has made towards negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement with Israel.

James Duddridge: On 20th July, we launched negotiations between the United Kingdom and Israel for an upgraded, innovation-focused Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with services at its heart. The first round of negotiations with Israel were completed in September. An upgraded FTA with Israel will cement our relationship with a rapidly growing economy, taking our trading relationship to the next level.

Coffee: Import Duties

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether any tariffs apply to imports of processed coffee as of 2 September 2022.

James Duddridge: Coffee tariffs range between 0.00% and 8.00% depending on characteristics such as whether the coffee is roasted or decaffeinated and they apply to imports that do not qualify for preferential treatment, for example under a Free Trade Agreement or through the UK Generalised Scheme of Preference (GSP). Businesses can check which tariffs apply to their goods on the Online Tariff Tool (https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff).

Trade Agreements: Faroe Islands

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what legal advice she has received on whether the Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Kingdom of Denmark in respect of the Faroe Islands (CP 32) presented to Parliament in February 2019 is compatible with the UK’s commitments to protecting animal welfare and in particular with the Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Act 2021.

James Duddridge: We have not received legal advice on this matter.

Department for International Trade: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many payments were fraudulently charged to the budgets of (a) her Department and (b) UK Export Finance using electronic purchasing cards in the financial years (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2020-21 and (iii) 2021-22; and what was the total value of fraudulent payments (A) made and (B) recovered in each of those years.

James Duddridge: The Department for International Trade (DIT) had a single case of fraud in 2020-21 of £986.98 which DIT recovered the full amount of from the card provider, Barclaycard. DIT fraud and error losses are published in the Cross-Government Fraud Landscape report which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landscape-bulletin-2019-20

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Telecommunications: National Security

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, for what reason her Department is yet to respond to the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 draft designated vendor direction consultation.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when her Department will publish its response to the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 draft designated vendor direction consultation.

Stephanie Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate she has made of the potential effect of delays to the Government's response to the Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 draft designated vendor direction consultation on businesses facing upcoming compliance deadlines.

Julia Lopez: Earlier this year DCMS held a targeted consultation with 35 public telecoms providers and Huawei on whether to issue a designation notice to Huawei and a designated vendor direction in respect of Huawei’s goods and services, for reasons of national security.Many telecoms vendors responded to the consultation, feeding back on specific technical aspects of their networks and timeframes to comply with the draft direction.Due to the technical and security implications of this consultation, it is right that we have taken time to consider and understand all representations - including those from Huawei.A number of follow up conversations have taken place to ensure that we fully understand all representations, and any implications that may arise from a decision.Having received and considered consultation responses, and having held follow up conversations, the Secretary of State is now deciding how to respond, and whether or not to issue a designation notice and designated vendor directions for Huawei.The outcome of this decision making process will be communicated to all relevant parties once it has been taken.If a decision is taken to issue a designated vendor direction for Huawei, any requirements and deadlines included in the direction will be proportionate to the aim of protecting national security. Where consultees have raised concerns over deadlines, we are considering their concerns fully.

Arts: Finance

Mrs Pauline Latham: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of provision of core funding to community arts organisations through (a) local authorities and (b) private charities.

Stuart Andrew: DCMS provides funding to community arts projects in England through a number of our arm’s-length bodies. Arts Council England, for example, invests in communities through their Lottery-funded Creative People and Places (CPP) programme. There are 41 CPP programmes covering 58 local authority districts across the country targeting the least engaged places in England. Arts Council England will invest over £38 million of Lottery funds into this programme for the period 2022-25.Local authorities also need to continue to recognise the huge benefits that investing in arts and culture can bring and many already do, building successful partnerships to deliver arts and culture to their communities. The Local Government Finance Settlement made available £54.1 billion in 2022/23 for local government in England, an increase of up to £3.7 billion in 2021/22. The majority of this funding is not ringfenced, in recognition of local authorities being best placed to understand local priorities, such as their community arts offer.While we are unable to quantify the total provision of core funding to community arts organisations by private foundations at this time, DCMS continues to work with key actors across the civil society sector to improve the data and evidence available.

Press: Conduct

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to safeguard bereaved families from abusive press attention.

Julia Lopez: The Government is committed to a free and independent press, and does not intervene in what the press can and cannot publish. We are clear, however, that with this freedom, comes responsibility, which media organisations must take seriously. There is an independent self regulatory regime to ensure that the press adheres to a wide set of clear and appropriate standards, and to offer individuals a means of redress where these are not met.

Channel Four Television: Privatisation

Martyn Day: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her policy is on the proposed privatisation of Channel 4.

Julia Lopez: Channel 4 is a great UK success story and, in a rapidly changing media landscape, the government wants Channel 4 to have the necessary tools to thrive in the long-term while maintaining its distinctiveness. It is right that the government looks again in detail at the business case for a sale of Channel 4, and I will announce next steps in due course.

Reach: Industrial Disputes

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will publish the dates of any meetings her Department has had with Reach Plc since 1 January 2022 in which requests by Reach employees who are also NUJ members to receive a pay increase were discussed.

Julia Lopez: Ministers and officials have regular meetings and discussions with news publisher stakeholders on a variety of issues. Details of Ministerial meetings are published quarterly on the GOV.UK website.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Training

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, on how many occasions the provision of mandatory training for her Departmental staff regarding their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 has been cited by her Department as a defence against Section 109 proceedings since the commencement of that Act.

Julia Lopez: We have reviewed DCMS cases in the last five years and none have used the defence available in s.109 and therefore cited mandatory training.DCMS does not hold information regarding cases beyond 5 years due to our data retention policies linked to GDPR.

Nuisance Calls

Dr Luke Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of (a) the Telephone Preference Service and (b) the powers of the Information Commissioner's Office to make directors liable for the fines imposed on their companies, in the context of helping to tackle nuisance calls.

Julia Lopez: The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) continues to provide an important free service for people and businesses who wish to opt out of receiving unsolicited live sales and marketing calls. Anyone who wishes to add their landline or mobile number to the TPS database can do so by visiting tpsonline.org.uk. Once a number has been registered, direct marketing organisations are legally required under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) to refrain from calling it.The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) enforces the law and has powers to fine persons that break it. In 2021/22, the ICO issued over £2.8 million in fines issued to companies responsible for nuisance calls, texts and emails.The ICO are currently considering responses to their consultation on new regulatory guidance on the use of their enforcement powers under PECR. This includes consideration of the circumstances where it would be appropriate to fine organisations or individual directors; and the factors the ICO would take into account when setting the level of a monetary penalty. The draft guidance can be viewed on the ICO’s website.

Digital Technology: Proof of Identity

Allan Dorans: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the facilitation of digital technology for formal age or other identification purposes.

Julia Lopez: DCMS is working to enable the development of a secure and trusted digital identity marketplace in the UK so that people can more easily and safely prove their identity and eligibility for goods and services, and businesses can save time and money by using digital technologies with confidence in their identity verification processes. The latest prototype (beta version) of the UK digital identity and attributes trust framework is published on GOV.UK.As of 6 April 2022 ID checks required as part of pre-employment, right to work, right to rent and criminal record checking processes have been enabled to be carried out digitally by identity providers certified against the UK digital identity and attributes trust framework. We have no plans to make digital identities compulsory.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: Work Experience

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many young people aged eighteen or younger have undertaken work experience in her Department in the last 12 months; and what proportion of those young people were (a) girls and (b) boys from state schools.

Julia Lopez: DCMS does not have a formal work experience scheme for young people aged eighteen or younger and does not hold central records of any informal work experience organised by individual business areas.

Public Service Broadcasting: Finance

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that the (a) fees and (b) penalties relating to the funding of public broadcasting are (i) proportionate, (ii) balanced and (iii) provide good value for money in the context of changing trends in media consumption.

Julia Lopez: The UK has six public service broadcasters (PSBs). Only two of these – the BBC and S4C (the Welsh language broadcaster) – receive direct public funding.The licence fee is the source of the overwhelming majority of this public funding. In January 2022, the government announced the licence fee settlement to the end of the current Charter period on 31 December 2027. The price of a TV licence will stay at £159 for two years, before rising in line with inflation from April 2024. The Government believes this settlement will give the BBC the money it needs to fulfil its mission and public purposes effectively, whilst making sure we support UK households through a difficult time and spend public money in a proportionate and balanced way. S4C also received a 9% increase in its funding to support the vital role it plays in supporting the Welsh economy, culture and society.As set out in the recent broadcasting white paper, ‘Up Next’, the government wants to find a funding model which will allow the BBC and S4C to continue to succeed while also being fair to those who pay for it. This is why we need to consider the most fair and appropriate funding mechanism to be introduced at the end of the current Charter period.

Holiday Accommodation: Regulation

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of regulating short-term holiday lets to help support the sustainability of rural tourism and communities.

Julia Lopez: The sharing economy has brought many benefits to the tourism sector and wider economy, as well as creating an additional income stream for homeowners. In rural areas, the growth of the sharing economy has enabled travellers to utilise the flexible accommodation options on offer to explore lesser-known rural destinations and make the most of the leisure opportunities they offer. However, we recognise that the increase in short-term letting has also prompted some concerns including the impact on the housing market and local communities, and a sense that new entrants in the market are not being held to the same health and safety standards as, for example, hotels and B&Bs.The Government’s Call for Evidence on the Short-Term Letting of Tourism Accommodation ran from 29 June to 21 September and analysis of the responses is now underway.We wanted to hear from a wide range of stakeholders, including local authorities, in order to build a much-needed evidence base on these issues and enable us to develop proportionate policy responses for a future consultation.With the Call for Evidence now closed, we will now consider the evidence collected and look to provide updates to the sector over the coming months regarding our next steps.